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Hackett eases to 1500m win

By Chloe Saltau, The Age, 24 March 2002

Two nights after moonlighting as a sprinter, Grant Hackett was again the consummate marathon man last night. He swam 1500 metres in a time - 14 minutes 56.50 seconds - that paled in comparison with his world record, but enabled him to conserve some strength for the impending world shortcourse championships in Moscow.

But the more intriguing race was between Craig Stevens and Daniel Kowalski for second, a battle which was ultimately won by Stevens but which kept Kowalski's dream of contesting his third Commonwealth Games alive. Third place and a bronze medal meant his fate was in the hands of the selectors last night.

Kowalski spent the first half of the race sitting a metre or two off Stevens' shoulder - undoubtedly his own shoulders, both surgically reconstructed and one of which collapsed in training only six weeks ago, were screaming at him to stop.

But Kowalski, 26, has never listened, and hung on grimly. Inevitably, though, the 21-year-old Stevens drew away and hit the wall in 15:27.88 to Kowalski's 15:32.74. Where that time placed him in the Commonwealth would determine whether or not he had earned a trip to Manchester, but he declared all was not lost if he didn't get there.

The alternative was to head overseas and race with Michael Klim, for whom back surgery has destroyed plans to compete at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific championships this year

"Man, that was hard," Kowalski said. "I'm just looking forward to going and having a beer. I've just done the best I possibly could . . . I have learnt it is never the end of the world."

Almost instantly last night, a lagoon stretched between Hackett and the rest of the field, led by Stevens and Kowalski, but the Commonwealth, Pan Pacific, world and Olympic champion did not appear to pursue his world record of 14:34.56 with any urgency.

From the beginning, he was slower that world record pace, but his race was an exercise in control.

Hackett has won every race he has contested since he was eclipsed in the 1996 Olympic trials by Kowalski and Kieren Perkins. No other swimmer in history has strung together six consecutive Australian titles in the 1500.

Probably no other swimmer has spread himself so liberally across the distances as Hackett has in Brisbane this week. First, he followed Ian Thorpe to the wall in the 400 freestyle, then pushed him to it in the 200. Then, on Friday night, Hackett plunged into the 100 freestyle with Thorpe, Ashley Callus and co, and resurfaced with a 4 x 100 relay place for Manchester.

"It's been a long nationals for me," Hackett said.

"It was difficult out there by myself trying to hold the pace." He and the rest of the Australian shortcourse team now head to Sweden for a training camp.

Article originally located at The Age