Hackett through in 1500m freestyle

03 August 2002

Australia’s Grant Hackett was the fastest in qualifying for the men’s 1500m freestyle final.

Hackett was in a class of his own

Hackett was given the chance to shine with Ian Thorpe not competing in this event. He finished in 15:20.63 over twenty-one seconds ahead of Canada’s Andrew Hurd.

Scotland’s Graeme Smith (15:21.51) won the other heat finishing comfortably ahead of Australia’s Craig Stevens.

Qualifiers:

Grant Hackett (AUS)
Graeme Smith (SCO)
Craig Stevens (AUS)
David Davies (WAL)
Andrew Hurd (CAN)
Andrew Jameson (SCO)
Adam Faulkner (ENG)
Stuart Trees (ENG)

In the EAD men’s 100m freestyle heats there were world-record breaking swims for Australia’s Ben Austin and South Africa’s Scott Field.

Wales’ David Roberts set a new Games record for his class and he was .15 of a second away from beating his own world record which he set last year in Stockholm.

Qualifiers for tonight’s final are:

Ben Austin (AUS)
Scott Field (RSA)
David Roberts (WAL)
Phillipe Gagnon (CAN)
Benoit Huot (CAN)
James Crisp (ENG)
Ian Sharpe (IOM)
Darren Leach (ENG)

For more information on EAD swimming see our aquatics section