Australia's Grant Hackett won the 1500 metres freestyle at the Athens Games on Saturday to become just the fourth man to win the race twice at the Olympics.

Hackett, unbeaten in the event for seven years, won gold in 14 minutes 43.40 seconds, well outside the world record of 14:34.56 he set at the 2001 world championships.

American Larsen Jensen finished second in 14:45.29 after threatening an unlikely upset in the latter stages of the race, while Briton David Davies was third in 14:45.95

Hackett also won the 1500 gold in Sydney and joins Mike Burton (1968, 1972), Vladimir Salnikov (1980, 1988) and Kieren Perkins (1992, 1996) as the only men to win the event twice.

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