Hackett makes it four in a row

Grant Hackett finished the 11th world championships as he started them by winning another gold medal to enhance his reputation as the greatest long-distance swimmer on the final night of competition on Sunday.

The Australian toyed with his rivals to capture the 1500m freestyle to become the first swimmer to win the same event four times, eight days after he won his first 400m freestyle gold.

The 25-year-old law student also became the first person to win seven career individual world titles, surpassing the previous record of six he shared with Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps, and finished the week with three golds after he also shattered Thorpe's 800m world record.

Phelps won his fifth gold medal in Montreal without even getting wet on Sunday when the United States took out the men's 4x100m medley relay. Phelps was not selected in the team but still got a medal because he swam in the heats.

American teenager Katie Hoff struck gold for the third time when she won the 400m individual medley to ensure the US topped the medals table with 15 golds.

Australia, who dominated the women's events with 10 titles, won three golds on Sunday to finish second with 13 while Zimbabwe, South Africa, France and Poland finished tied for third with two each.

Australia's Jade Edmistone set the ninth and final world record of the championships to win the 50m breaststroke while her compatriot Libby Lenton won the 50m freestyle to claim her first individual world title after winning two relays.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary capitalised on Phelps's decision to skip the 400m individual medley to win in a time of four minutes 09.63 seconds, closing the gap on his absent rival. Luca Marin of Italy finished second in 4:11.67 while Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third in 4:13.47.

Aristeidis Grigoriadis became the first Greek to win a world title with victory in the 50m backstroke, snatching the gold in 24.95. Australia's Matt Welsh finished second in 24.99 while Liam Tancock of Britain was third in 25.02.

DOMINANT SWIM

Hackett, awarded the FINA Trophy for the best male swimmer of the championships, led all the way to win in a time of 14:42.58 and extend his unbeaten record in the event since 1996.

American Larsen Jenson finished second in 14:47.58, while David Davies of Britain was third in 14:48.11 in a repeat of the placings at last year's Athens Olympics.

"It is an awesome feeling to be able to achieve something like that and be the first person in history to do it," said Hackett.

"It is something that I have been focussing on and it's really satisfying to do it."

Edmistone won her first gold in a time of 30.45 to shave 0.12 seconds off the 30.57 set by Zoe Baker at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

American teenager Jessica Hardy, who set the 100m breaststroke world record earlier this week, finished second in 30.85 while Brooke Hanson of Australia was third in 30.89.

Lenton won the 50m freestyle after recovering from a slow start to touch in 24.59.

Marlene Veldhuis of the Netherlands finished second in 24.83 while Zhu Yingwen of China was third in 24.91 with less than a second separating the eight finalists.

MEDLEY GOLD

Cseh took the lead after the first 75m of his race and pulled away to take the medley gold and add the world title to his European crown.

Hoff, 16, confirmed her status as the new big name of women's swimming with a runaway victory in the 400m medley in a time of 4:36.07 to add to the 200m medley and 4x200m relay golds.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry finished second to end with two golds and two silvers. She single-handedly helped her troubled African nation finish third on the medals table and earned herself the FINA Trophy for the best female swimmer.

"I hope I am giving people at home the hope to follow their dreams and do things they think and believe they can achieve because it is very possible," she said.

Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Jason Lezak won the men's 4x100m medley relay in a time of 3:31.85.

Peirsol and Hansen both finished with three gold medals each after winning the 100m-200m doubles in backstroke and breaststroke respectively.

The Russian team of Arkady Vyatchanin, Dmitry Komornikov, Igor Marchenko and Andrey Kapralov finished second in 3:35.08.

The Japanese combination of Tomomi Morita, Kosuke Kitajima, Ryo Takayasu and Daisuke Hosokawa was third in 3:35.40.