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Hacket upstages Thorpe in 200 freestyle

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Posted: Monday March 22, 1999 11:47 AM

Grant Hackett is the fifth swimmer to break 1:47 in the 200-meter freestyle. Adam Pretty/Allsport

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- World 1500-meter champion Grant Hackett missed the world 200-meter freestyle record by an agonizing 0.3 seconds and upstaged Ian Thorpe at the Australian championships on Monday.

Hackett scored a shocking win over Thorpe, who was chasing the oldest world record in men's swimming -- the 1 minute, 46.69 second set by Italian Giorgio Lamberti in 1989 -- having missed the mark by .01 at the September Commonwealth Games.

Hackett, 18, became only the fifth swimmer to break 1:47 for the distance. He has been working on his speed since missing the 4x200m freestyle relay team which set a world record at the Commonwealth Games.

Thorpe, 16, went close to breaking Kieren Perkins' 1994 world record for 400 meters earlier in the meet, which will choose Australia's team for the Pan Pacific Games in Sydney in August.

 

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