Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia wins 1,500 freestyle gold at World Aquatics Championships

Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui won the men's 1,500m freestyle title at swimming's world championships on Sunday.

Hafnaoui came home in 14min, 31.54sec to finish ahead of American Bobby Finke on 14:31.59 and Australia's Sam Short on 14:37.28.

Hafnaoui's time was less than a second off the world record of 14:31.02 set by China's Sun Yang in 2012.

"Bobby is so fast in the end of the race, he just pushed us," said Hafnaoui.

"It was so close to the world record. I enjoyed the race and thanks Bobby for pushing me."

Short led for most of the race but faded towards the end to leave Hafnaoui and Finke going head-to-head.

"I think I deserve it," said Hafnaoui.

Short won the 400m freestyle title earlier in the week, pipping Hafnaoui to the line.

Hafnaoui, the Olympic 400m freestyle champion, got his revenge in the 800m freestyle final, edging Short after an epic battle.

Finke is the reigning Olympic 1,500m champion.

Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, who won the race at last year's world championships in Budapest, chose not to defend his title.

Meanwhile, Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set her second world record in as many days in the women's 50 metres breaststroke, powering to the gold medal in a superb time of 29.16 seconds on the final day of swimming action at the World Aquatics Championships.

Meilutyte obliterated the record of 29.30 seconds that she had jointly held with Benedetta Pilato of Italy, after setting that mark in the semifinals on Saturday and she sent out a warning to her rivals ahead of next year's Paris Olympics.

"I'm happy," Meilutyte said. "I definitely felt it was possible. I'm enjoying the process along the way."

She was 0.78 seconds ahead of silver medallist Lilly King of the United States. Pilato took bronze in 30.04 seconds.

Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem had broken her own world record in the women's 50m freestyle semifinals in a time of 23.61 seconds a day earlier and the 29-year-old was almost as quick in the final to claim gold in style.

Sjoestroem finished only one hundredth of a second away from her blistering effort for the record to beat Australia's Shayna Jack, who clocked 24.10.

"I'm super happy with that. It was very busy yesterday, with the world record and the gold medal," said Sjoestroem, who won a fifth straight world title in the 50m butterfly on Saturday.

Sjoestroem's freestyle victory meant the evergreen swimmer went past American great Michael Phelps with her 21st individual medal at the worlds.

Zhang Yufei took bronze in 24.15 to further swell China's medal tally.

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