Grant Hackett exults after winning the 800m gold in a record time of 7:38.65 at the Fina World Championships on Wednesday

Montreal: Grant Hackett shattered Ian Thorpe’s 800 metres freestyle record at the Fina World Championships on Wednesday to join his Australian rival as the only swimmers to win six individual world titles.

Hackett took gold in 7:38.65, slashing more than half a second off the mark set by Thorpe at the 2001 World Championships in Japan, when the pair engaged in an epic battle.

“It’s always a great feeling to break any world record but to break one of Ian Thorpe’s is special because it has extra credibility,” Hackett said. “I already have the 1500m world record and I thought I really should have the 800m as well because it’s in my range, it’s really my forte.”

Hackett’s record took the spotlight away from Michael Phelps and overshadowed a remarkable performance by German doctor Mark War- necke, who became the oldest world champion in history.

Warnecke turned back the clock to pull off a shock win in the men’s 50m breaststroke final and claim a first world title at 35, an age when most top swimmers have long retired.

The oldest world champion before him was Russian Alexander Popov, who won the freestyle sprint double in Barcelona two years ago at 31.

“People have been asking me for 15 years when am I going to quit,” smiled Warnecke, whose previous best result was the 50m breaststroke title at the 2000 European championships.

“I don’t know, maybe another 20 years. Why not?”

Solenne Figues provided France with their second gold of the meet when she won the 200m freestyle, while Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland took full advantage of Phelps’ absence from the 200m butterfly with an all-the-way victory.

Hackett’s performance was all the more impressive because Larsen Jensen, who finished a distant second in 7:45.63, sliced two seconds off the American record while Russia’s Yuri Prilukov set a European record to take third in 7:46.64.

Warnecke took gold in the breaststroke in a time of 27.63 seconds. Mark Gangloff of the US was second in 27.71 while Kosuke Kitajima of Japan was third in 27.78.

Figues took the women’s 200m freestyle gold in 1:58.60 ahead of Federica Pellegrini of Italy, China’s Yang Yu and Sweden’s Josefin Lillhage dead-heated for third in 1:59.08.

Korzeniowski led all the way to take the 200m butterfly title in 1:55.02 seconds, more than a second outside Phelps’ world record. Japanese Takeshi Matsuda finished second in 1:55.62 while Chinese Wu Peng was third in 1:56.50.