A full house turned out in Montreal on the final day of the FINA
World Swimming Championship to see Grant Hackett become the first
swimmer in history to win the same event at the World Championships
four times when he won the 1,500m gold medal. The win took his career
tally to 16 medals, the most of any swimmer in the history of these
FINA titles – his ability to be competitive at every distance from the
200m to 1,500m freestyle is unprecedented, as is his winning the 400m,
800m and 1,500m freestyle gold at one FINA championship. He was
later announced as the male swimmer of the championship.

But it was the Australian women who again led the way. Jade
Edmistone produced yet another fairytale result when she broke the 50m
breaststroke world record to win in 30.45sec. Brooke Hanson continued a poor
championship run after her Athens Olympic triumphs, taking the
bronze.

In the women’s 50m freestyle Lisbeth Lenton proved her selection was
justified when she won her first individual gold medal in a personal
best of 24.59sec (just 0.1sec shy of the the Australian record) to
help Australia sweep all the 50m events at the titles.

In the men’s 50m backstroke Matt Welsh almost retrieved his meet with a gold medal but
finished a close second just four hundredths of a second behind the Greek winner,
after winning gold at the two previous World Championships.

The
Australian team finished second to the
US in the final medal tally – 15 gold
to 13.