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SEVILLE, Spain: Australian Olympic champion Grant
Hackett failed to secure a berth for the Beijing Olympics’ 10km
open water event when he was disqualified from the 10km race at the
world championships Sunday.
The event was won by Russian
Vladimir Dyatchin in a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 21 seconds,
ahead of Britain’s David Davies, who finished a close three tenths
of a second behind.
Another Australian, Ky Hurst, who
tied for fifth place at 16.6sec behind Dyatchin, secured his Olympic
ticket for Beijing.
Hackett won gold in the 1500
meters at both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics and is one
of the big favorites to go for a rare triple in Beijing.
However, his dream of winning
gold in both rough and still water was torpedoed Sunday when he
failed to finish with the Top 10 place that would have taken him to
the Beijing open water competition.
Hackett finished 15th and said he
had been targeted by aggressive opponents.
But he was then dramatically
disqualified because the race referee ruled he had caused
interference with other swimmers.
“It certainly surprised me,
that’s for sure,” Hackett said.
“I knew it was going to be a
rough race, and there was plenty of guys pulling legs, swimming over
the top of each other around the turning buoys, but I was determined
to stay away from all that kind of stuff.”
--AFP
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