Australia?s Grant Hackett powering down the pool on his way to winning the final of the Men?s 1500M freestyle at the Grand Prix swimming meet in Sydney on July 6.

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Australian Grant Hackett broke his own shortcourse 800 metres freestyle world record in seven minutes 23.42 seconds yesterday. Hackett, 28, preparing for a record third 1500m freestyle gold medal at next month's Beijing Olympics,

shaved 1.86 seconds off his 2001 world mark of 7:25.28.He also holds the world shortcourse records in the 400m and 1500m freestyle along with the 800m and 1500m freestyle longcourse world records.Hackett used the weekend's shortcourse event as a final hit-out at home before he flew out to Singapore with his coach Ian Pope late Sunday to continue his preparations for the Games.The Australian swim team captain will link up with the rest of the national team next weekend in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the Beijing Games.Meanwhile, former Olympic swimmer Giann Rooney said the Australian women's swim team could win 10 gold medals at next month's Beijing Olympics.Rooney was speaking at last night's fund-raising dinner for the Australian Olympic team in Melbourne.She added Australia's female swimmers were legitimate gold medal hopefuls in 10 events.“Hopefully the girls can do it,” she said.“They're all young, they're all going to go on from here ... and our depth has probably never been better than it is at the moment.“So expect to hear the national anthem quite a few times.”