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10km: Hackett disqualified
04/05/2008 15:01 - (SA)
Seville, Spain - Grant Hackett was disqualified from the 10km open water race Sunday and won't compete in the event at the Beijing Olympics.
Organisers did not immediately say why the two-time Olympic champion from Australia was disqualified.
Hackett, who is going for an unprecedented third straight gold in the 1 500m freestyle at the Olympics, needed to finish in the top 10 to qualify or beat Ky Hurst of Australia and go to Beijing as Oceania's top swimmer from the 54-man field.
Vladimir Dyatchin, who won last year's championships at Melbourne, Australia, edged David Davies of Britain by three-tenths of a second to retain the title. The 25-year-old Russian swam the four loops of the Guadalquivir river course in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 21 seconds.
Thomas Lurz of Germany, the 2006 champion, finished 6.2 seconds behind in third. Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands trailed by 15.3sec for fourth while Russia's Evgeny Drattsev and Hurst finished tied fifth with 1:53:37.6.
Mark Warkentin of the United States, Italy's Valerio Cleri, Gianniotis Spyridon of Greece, Belgium's Brian Ryckeman and Gilles Rondy of France rounded out the top 10, with the last two swimmers tied for the final spot that ensured a place on the starting line at Beijing.
Luis Escobar of Mexico, Mohamed El Zanaty Metwaly Mez of Egypt and Syria's Saleh Mohammad also qualified for Beijing.
The open-water event, often called a "wrestling match in water" because of aggressive tactics, is making its debut at the Summer Games.
Larisa Ilchenko of Russia won her second straight 10km open-water world championship in the women's discipline on Saturday while amputee Natalie du Toit of South Africa qualified for the Olympics by finishing fourth.
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