Olympics: Pellegrini to take year off after 400m freestyle final flop

London, 30 July (AKI) - Italian world champion Federica Pellegrini will take a year off from swimming and reconsider her future after coming fifth in the women's 400m freestyle final at the London Olympics on Sunday.

"Tomorrow I’ve got the 200, which I won’t enter in great spirits,” a disappointed Pellegrini said at the end of Sunday's race, which was won by France's Camille Muffat.

“At this point I think I need a year off, then a year from now we’ll see if I still have the desire to swim.”

The 24--year-old native of Mirano, in the province of Venice, Pellegrini is currently the women's 200 m freestyle (long course and short course) and 400 m (long course) freestyle world record holder.

Pellegrini is the first female Olympic champion in the history of Italian swimming after winning a gold medal in 2008 in the 200m freestyle in Bejiing.

The only Italian swimmer to have set world records in more than one event, she has been at the elite level for nearly a decade, having won a silver at the Athens Olympics in 2004 at the age of 16.

The 200 freestyle heats begin Monday and Muffat enters with the second-fastest qualifying time behind the American Allison Schmitt, who won the silver medal in the 400m freestyle.