The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 22–23 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.[1]
| Men's 1500 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Sydney International Aquatic Centre | ||||||||||||
| Date | September 22, 2000 (heats) September 23, 2000 (final) | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 41 from 32 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 14:48.33 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Australia's Grant Hackett denied his teammate and sentimental favourite Kieren Perkins a third straight title in the event. Having suffered badly over the first six days of the Games, Hackett maintained a strong lead from start to finish, and touched the wall first to claim a gold in 14:48.33.[2][3] Perkins fought off a challenge against his newest rival in the middle of the program's longest race, but ended up only with a silver in 14:53.59, handing the entire medal haul for the host nation with a 1–2 finish. U.S. swimmer Chris Thompson came up with a spectacular swim to take the bronze in an American record of 14:56.81, holding off a fast-closing Alexei Filipets of Russia (14:56.88) by seven hundredths of a second (0.07). For the first time in Olympic history, all three medalists finished the race under a 15-minute barrier.[4]
South Africa's dark horse Ryk Neethling powered home with a fifth-place effort in a new national record of 15:00.48, while American Erik Vendt, who previously set a continental mark from the trials, faded shortly to sixth in a time of 15:08.61.[5] Ukraine's Igor Chervynskiy (15:08.80) and Germany's Heiko Hell (15:19.87) rounded out the finale.[4]
Records edit
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record |  Kieren Perkins (AUS) |
14:41.66 | Victoria, Canada | 24 August 1994 | [6] |
| Olympic record |  Kieren Perkins (AUS) |
14:43.48 | Barcelona, Spain | 31 July 1992 | [6] |
Results edit
Heats edit
Final edit
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
3 | Grant Hackett | Australia |
14:48.33 | |
 |
4 | Kieren Perkins | Australia |
14:53.59 | |
 |
7 | Chris Thompson |  United States |
14:56.81 | AM |
| 4 | 2 | Alexei Filipets |  Russia |
14:56.88 | |
| 5 | 6 | Ryk Neethling |  South Africa |
15:00.48 | AF |
| 6 | 5 | Erik Vendt | United States |
15:08.61 | |
| 7 | 8 | Igor Chervynskiy |  Ukraine |
15:08.80 | |
| 8 | 1 | Heiko Hell |  Germany |
15:19.87 |
References edit
- ^ "Swimming schedule". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 September 2000. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "Hackett denies Perkins gold". News24. 23 September 2000. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
- ^ Lonsbrough, Anita (25 September 2000). "Swimming: Hackett ends Perkins' long reign". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
- ^ a b Whitten, Phillip (23 September 2000). "Olympic Day 8 Finals – Complete". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
- ^ "Ryk clocks his best time – not good enough for medal". News24. 24 September 2000. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
- ^ a b c "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Men's 1500m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 150–160. Retrieved 28 May 2013.