PARIS, France (AFP) — American Bobby Finke smashed the world record time as he defended his Olympic title in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle on Sunday.

Finke, who led from the outset, set a new world best time of 14 minutes and 30.67 seconds, breaking the previous best of 14 minutes and 31.02 seconds set by China’s Sun Yang in London in 2012.

Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri took silver and Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen collected bronze.

Finke, who won gold in both 1500 meters and 800 meters freestyle in Tokyo, made his intentions clear from the outset, taking a clear lead in the opening laps.

He was out on his own until Paltrinieri, the gold medallist in this event in Rio in 2016, narrowed the gap around the 850 meters mark.

The Italian was also swimming at a world record tempo but when it came down to the final four laps, Finke had kept some energy in reserve to ensure he reached the wall 3.88 seconds ahead of Paltrinieri.

“I had a pretty decent lead at about the 300 and I knew I had to keep going. Hopefully try to make the guys hurt a bit trying to catch up with me,” Finke said.

“They started catching up with me and I started to get a little worried, but I decided to keep pushing and as long as I could keep a little bit of a distance I knew I was in a good shape for the race.” 

Despite his impressively quick start to the race, Finke said he had not gone into the race focused on the world record time but became aware he had the opportunity to get into the record books.

“No. I could see the world record line on the board a couple of times. It wasn’t like I was trying to see it. I just happened to see it,” he added.

“The world’s getting faster and I think it’s a really good thing. It’s a healthy thing for the sport,” he said.