Record-chasing Hackett reaches third final

Grant Hackett, who is chasing an unprecedented sweep of four freestyle titles at the world championships, kept alive his dream yesterday by booking a spot in his third final.

The Australian set the fastest time in the 800m heats to qualify for today's 16-length final, where he will start as an overwhelming favourite to defend the title he won in Barcelona two years ago.

The 25-year-old law student has already won the 400m gold medal in Montreal and was considered as the biggest danger to Michael Phelps in the 200m final last night, the most difficult of his four freestyle races.

Hackett's favourite event, the 1500m, is on the final day of competition. He has not been beaten over that distance in almost a decade but his massive workload has presented him with a fresh challenge.

"I was thrilled with my heat swim," Hackett told reporters. "I'm unsure about what to expect from myself, swimming so many events but I'm learning how to pace myself.

"All my races have been hard but I've put myself in this position and I'm determined to give it my all."

Hackett fought off a sustained challenge from American Larsen Jenson to win his 800m heat in seven minutes 47.62 seconds, more than seven seconds outside his personal best.

Larsen's 7:48.89 was the second fastest overall while Russian Yuri Prilukov, runner-up in the 400m, was third in 7:51.75, just ahead of David Davies of Britain.

American teenager Katie Hoff, back in the pool less than 15 hours after she swam the second fastest time in history to win the 200m individual medley, qualified second fastest for the women's 200m freestyle.

The 16-year-old from Baltimore won her heat in 1:59.28, just 0.16 behind the fastest qualifier, Italian Federica Pellegrini.

"It was pretty tough because of all the excitement of last night but I got psyched up for the 200m," Hoff said.

"I'm not ranked so well in this event but I am just going to go with the momentum I'm in right now and carry it through the meet."

Australia's Linda MacKenzie was third in 1:59.32 with the top 10 separated by less than a second. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, runner-up to Hoff in Monday's medley final, missed out on the semis after finishing 20th quickest.

Japan's Ryuichi Shibata made the most of Phelps's absence from the 200m butterfly to qualify fastest with a time of 1:56.60.

Australia's Travis Nederpelt was second in 1:56.91 with Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski third in 1:56.93.

Lisogor misses out

Ukrainian world record holder Oleg Lisogor missed a place in the men's 50m breaststroke semis after finishing fourth in his heat in a time of 28.18, exactly one second outside the world record he set at the 2002 European championships in Berlin.

American Mark Gangloff topped the qualifying in 27.49, a quarter of a second ahead of Briton James Gibson and Frenchman Hugues Duboscq.