Olympics: Mellouli prevents Hackett's history bid in 1500m freestyle

Monday 18 August 2008

BEIJING - Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli ended Australian Grant Hackett's dream of an historic three 1500m freestyle Olympic gold medals with a thrilling victory in the final at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.

Mellouli sprinted clear with 300m left and held off Hackett's spirited finish to win in 14 minutes 40.84 seconds.

Hackett, the winner of the event in Sydney and Athens and bidding to become the first man to win three Olympics titles in the same event, took the silver medal in 14:41.53, only 0.49secs behind.

Canadian Ryan Cochrane, who led up to the 1000m, finished third in 14:42.69.

Mellouli, 24, has only recently served out an 18-month doping ban after becoming Tunisia's first swimming world champion with a come-from-behind win in the 800m freestyle at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

Mellouli was subsequently stripped of the gold medal after testing positive for amphetamines and completed his ban in May in time to swim at the Olympics.

Seven of the field finished the final inside 15mins.