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MELBOURNE (Reuters) - David Davies gave Wales its first Commonwealth Games swimming gold for 32 years on Tuesday, destroying a proud Australian record for good measure.

Davies’s comfortable victory in the men’s 1,500 metres freestyle ended Australia’s 48-year stranglehold on swimming’s ‘iron man’ event on the final night of competition.

“I was proud out there — I was almost crying,” said Davies, who stormed to the gold in 14 minutes 57.63 seconds in the absence of Australia’s Olympic champion Grant Hackett.

“It’s the first major medal I’ve won and I’m going to remember it for the rest of my life.”

Davies was third behind Hackett at the 2004 Olympics and at last year’s world championship, and was installed as the odds-on favourite when the Australian pulled out after shoulder surgery.

He became the first non-Australian to win the gold since 1954 and the first swimmer from Wales to win a Commonwealth title since Patricia Beavan’s 200 metres breaststroke gold in 1974.

“It’s a massive weight off my shoulders,” said Davies. “Since Grant Hackett’s withdrawal I’ve been expected to win. It’s a new experience for me.

DIFFERENT ANIMAL

“I’m still not that same type of animal as Grant Hackett or even Kieren Perkins. They can go out fast and attack but it takes a lot out of me.”

Wrapped in a Welsh flag, Davies celebrated his start-to-finish victory by jumping into the Welsh enclosure to hug coaches, family and team mates.

“I swam out on my own. It was pretty hard,” said the 21-year-old, who touched almost 12 seconds before runner-up Andrew Hurd of Canada.

“One of the boys said to me, ‘If I go down to the bookies and put 1,000 dollars on and you don’t come through I’ll only get 20 back’, so there was a lot of pressure.”

Davies’s time was well outside his personal best and more than 23 seconds outside Hackett’s world record of 14:34.56.

“Now I know what it’s like to go out there and do it,” he said. “I’ll take it on again when all the big guys are back for the (2008 Beijing) Olympics and (2007) world championships.”