Australian team captain Grant Hackett, Olympic and world champion over 1,500m freestyle, is to break from his mentor and coach since childhood, Denis Cotterell, in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, according to reports out of Australia today.

After the world championships next month, Hackett will leave the Gold Coast to live permanently in Melbourne with his partner Candice Alley, who he will marry there in April.

The move will take the 26-year-old under the wing of coach Ian Pope, with whom Hackett worked for two months last year.

There is risk attached to such a move. Swimming is awash with world-class swimmers whose form has taken a dive after they left the stable that nurtured them from childhood to the very helm of their sport.

“There comes a time when you feel like you’ve got the most out of a relationship and you sort of want to move forward,” Hackett told the Seven Network. “Twenty years of travelling the same path to the pool has got to create some kind of monotony.”

Understandably, Cotterell does not quite see things the same way. “His talent, his abilities, his desire haven’t changed so I can’t see really why things can’t be as we’d always planned.”

Doubts over Hackett’s form emerged lately when he admitted that he had recently needed three cortisone injections to help him train after he underwent shoulder surgery last year.

Melbourne 2007 will be the first true test of whether Hackett has seen his best days or still has the winning edge over the rivals stacking up behind him.

Pope, whose squad includes some world-class swimmers in the twilight of their careers - Matt Welsh and Michael Klim, for example - believes he can help Hackett. “There are certain things I think we can improve on, the important thing for Grant is he swims well off confidence so looking at ways we can build his confidence and he gets confident from training well. We will be looking at his stroke and minor things we can get him better on turns and those minor things which add up over 1500m.”

Hackett told Nicole Jeffery of The Australian: “It feels like one I had to make for the better,” Hackett said last night of his decision. It’s nothing to do with the relationship between Denis and (me). There’s no issues there. I just need a change of lifestyle and a new environment. After 21 years in the same place, doing the same thing, I think anyone could understand that gets a little bit monotonous. I feel stale here (at the Gold Coast), I need a bit of a freshen up. Of course, I feel there’s a bit of a risk, when you have had a successful relationship. The toughest part about this decision was my loyalty to Denis. To sever that was very, very difficult. But if I stayed, it would be because I was afraid of failure. I’d rather take the chance of getting something better out of myself.”

Hackett will next test his form at the NSW Open swimming championships at Sydney Olympic Park from February 16-18 alongside 20 other members of the Dolphins team for Melbourne 2007.

The world championships opening ceremony, meanwhile, will include a celebration of Ian Thorpe’s career, according to reports in Sydney and Melbourne today.