Tunisia's Mellouli shatters Hackett's history bid

Mellouli sprinted clear with 300m left and held off Hackett's spirited finish to win in 14 minutes 40.84 seconds and become Tunisia's first-ever Olympic swimming champion.

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 0.69secs behind.

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

"I've been waiting for this moment for two years," said Mellouli, who only recently returned from a doping suspension.

"I had expectations for the 400m freestyle, but this is a great surprise.

"I felt good in the first 400m of this race and at the 800m and 900m I started believing that I could win.

"It was all calculated. I slowed down in the penultimate 100m to save my energy and attack in the final 50m."

Mellouli, 24, served 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.

He was subsequently stripped of the title after testing positive for amphetamines and only completed his ban in May in time to swim at the Olympics.

"It's the redemption I wanted and I got it," Mellouli said.

Mellouli's surprise victory ended a sequence of four consecutive Australian wins in the Olympic 1500m final, stretching back to Kieren Perkins's double victory in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.

No man has ever won three consecutive Olympic titles, although Australian sprinter Dawn Fraser and Hungarian backstroker Krisztina Egerszegi have achieved the feat in women's swimming.

"It's disappointing, yet so close," Hackett said. "To get second is great, but three in a row would have been nice.

"I have certainly no regrets in my preparation and what I've been able to do here. It was certainly a good race.

"I gave it everything today, it was a hard race. I'm a little bit tired. The heat swim was the second fastest 1500 I have ever done."

Hackett was surprised that Mellouli had hung on for victory in the closing stages of the 30-lap marathon.

"He has never hung on that well in the past, but he had a good race and my hat goes off to him," he said.

Hackett said he was undecided about his swimming future beyond Beijing.

"I'm not sure. I'm a little older now, I'll see what I feel like, have a break, then see what happens."

Seven of the field finished the final inside 15 minutes.

Russian Yuriy Prilukov finished fourth in 14:43.21 ahead of American Larsen Jensen (14:48.16) and Great Britain's David Davies (14:52.11).