BEIJING (AFP) — Oussama Mellouli shattered Australian Grant Hackett's Olympic treble dream and put behind him his own drugs nightmare with an upset triumph in the 1500-metres freestyle at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.
Mellouli, 24, killed off Hackett's bid to become the first man to win three Olympic titles in the same event and also claim Tunisia's first-ever Olympic swimming gold medal.
Mellouli, planning on swimming a strong final 800m, took over the lead with 300m left and held off Hackett's spirited finish to win in 14 minutes 40.84 seconds.
It was Olympic heartbreak for the world record holder and four-time world champion Hackett, who was bidding to add the Beijing crown to the titles he won in Sydney and Athens.
The 28-year-old Australian had to be satisifed with the silver medal in 14:41.53, just 0.69secs separating him and Mellouli after 30 gruelling laps of the Water Cube pool.
Canadian Ryan Cochrane, who led up to the 1000m, finished third in 14:42.69.
Just two days earlier, world record-holder Hackett had posted the second-fastest 1,500m in history in the heats.
While Hackett reflected on what might have been in his last Olympic Games, Mellouli saw his surprise victory as redemption.
The Tunisian served an 18-month doping ban after becoming his country's first swimming world champion with a come-from-behind win in the 800m freestyle with Hackett trailing in seventh at last year's world championships in Melbourne.
He was subsequently stripped of the title after testing positive for amphetamines and only completed his ban in May in time to swim in Beijing.
"I've been waiting for this moment for two years. It's the redemption I wanted and I got it," Mellouli said.
"This year was difficult because of the (drugs) penalty, but I thank God for the talent I've been given. At the Olympic Games anything can happen. It was a miracle and for once the miracle was for me."
Mellouli plotted to steal the race from the middle stages and go for broke and hang on.
"I felt good in the first 400m of this race and at the 800m and 900m I started believing that I could win," he said.
"It was all calculated. I slowed down in the penultimate 100m to save my energy and attack in the final 50m.
"I knew I had a lot of speed, But I wasn't 100 percent sure. I knew this was going to be a challenge. I had a pretty good race in the 400 freestyle, but it didn't happen for me."
Mellouli's shock triumph ended an Australian domination of the Olympic 1500m final, stretching back to Kieren Perkins's double victory in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.
Although no man has ever won three consecutive Olympic titles, Australian sprinter Dawn Fraser and Hungarian backstroker Krisztina Egerszegi have achieved the feat in women's swimming.
"It's disappointing, yet so close," Hackett said. "To get second is great, but three in a row would have been nice.
"I have certainly no regrets in my preparation and what I've been able to do here. It was certainly a good race.
"I gave it everything today, it was a hard race. I'm a little bit tired. The heat swim was the second fastest 1500 I have ever done."
Hackett said he was surprised that Mellouli had hung on for victory in the closing stages.
"He has never hung on that well in the past, but he had a good race and my hat goes off to him," he said.
Despite Mellouli's ban, Australian coach Alan Thompson said it shouldn't be assumed that Hackett's hope for history was undone by anything underhanded.
"I would hope it's not the case. The young bloke had an issue, he was suspended, he paid his penalties and came back and achieved a good result," Thompson said.
"It shows how hard it is to achieve three in a row, and it shows how revered people who do three in a row are in sport," he added. "It's a tremendous feat, very difficult to achieve and Grant missed it by the smallest of margins.
"I'd hate to think that (drugs) came into the equation."
Hackett said he won't be swimming on to the 2012 London Olympics.
"I won't be there in four years' time, I have to have my shoulder fixed up each week just to make sure I can do the training," he said. "Whether I stay around a bit longer remains to be seen.
"I'm a little older now, I'll see what I feel like, have a break, then see what happens."
Seven of the field swam inside 15 minutes. Russian Yuriy Prilukov finished fourth in 14:43.21 ahead of American Larsen Jensen (14:48.16) and Great Britain's David Davies (14:52.11).
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