Swimming-Bounty on Hackett still not enough
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Not even a $1 million bounty could inspire anyone enough to beat Grant Hackett on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Australian confirmed his status as the greatest long-distance swimmer ever when he won the 1500 metres freestyle at the world swimming championships on Sunday.
Unbeaten over the distance since 1996, not even a $1 million incentive offered by U.S. Swimming to any American swimmer who can beat Hackett and his world record of 14:34.60 could keep him from becoming the first swimmer to win the same event at four world championships.
The victory capped off a historic week for Hackett, who also became the first person to win seven individual world titles, surpassing the previous record of six he shared with Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps.
“It is great,” said Hackett, who was awarded the FINA trophy as the championships’ top male swimmer. “It’s an awesome feeling to be able to achieve something like that to be the first person in history to do it.
“Now that it’s over, that I’ve completed it, it is really satisfying. It was a tough race, a tough swim.
“It has been a big programme and I am happy with the results I got.”
Hackett was the only swimmer at Montreal to win gold medals in three individual events, the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle. He also won silver in the 200m behind Michael Phelps and the bronze in the 4×200m relay.
As impressive as the 1500m victory was, he clocked 14 minutes 42.58 seconds, five-seconds clear of Larsen Jenson of the United States in 14:47.58, it was his world-record in the 800m that stood out the most.
He touched in 7:38.65 slashing more than half a second off the mark set by Thorpe at the 2001 world championships in Japan, when the pair engaged in an epic battle.
Despite David Davies’s posting the quickest qualifying time in the 1500m, Hackett quickly dispelled any notion of an upset and opened up a three body-length lead after just 200 metres.
“I felt easy every day except today,” said Hackett. “Certainly the pace of tonight wasn’t a reflection where I’ve been swimming this week after the other events.
“It’s one of those events if you don’t feel quite on the time is going to come back a little bit but 42 is the third fastest time I’ve ever done and at the end of big week like this it’s great.
“It’s very satisfying to just get through that and get that done.”
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