World Aquatics Championships 2023: Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui upsets defending champion Finke in men's 800m freestyle
Tokyo 2020 champion in the men's 400m freestyle defeats Olympic and defending world champion Finke despite the latter setting an American record.
Swimming
Tunisia’s sole gold medallist at Tokyo 2020, Ahmed Hafnaoui, has returned to the top of the podium after winning the men’s 800m freestyle at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Wednesday (26 July).
Off the podium in the 800m event until now, the Tokyo 2020 champion in the men's 400m freestyle pushed into the lead in the final stretches of the race in Fukuoka. He touched the wall in 7:37.00, ahead of Australia’s Samuel Short and USA’s Bobby Finke.
"It's too much adrenaline when you see all these guys next to you just battling for the gold, especially the 400 world champion Sam Short, when you know he's pretty fast in the last 100 so you just wait to the last 50 and try to win," Hafnaoui said in a post-race press conference about his surge in the last metres.
"We were chatting a lot about going as fast as I can in the last 50 and I think I have more speed than the other guys. I just put my head in the water and just went fast."
Short took silver with an Oceania record of 7:37.76.
The Olympic champion and defending world champion in the event Bobby Finke finished third despite further lowering his time and setting an American record of 7:38.67.
Hafnaoui has been largely off the radar since surprising the world with his gold in the men's 400m at Tokyo 2020.
The 20-year-old swimmer trained n Tunisia until the World Swimming Championships (25m) in December 2021, then took a break and moved to Bloomington, Indiana to continue his athletic and academic pursuits. He credited the change in training for his success in Fukuoka, which also included a silver in the 400m freestyle.
"I transferred to USA in September last year and we were training super hard and we were changing a little bit in our practice," Hafnaoui said. "We were focusing on the details, turns and this stuff, and (it was) always another kind of practice. I'm not used to it so I think that's what improved me."
The gold in Fukuoka is Hafnaoui's first major victory in the 800m freestyle. However, he gave signs of his potential earlier this year when he beat Finke at the TYR Pro Swim Series on 11 January. It was one of the Tunisian's rare appearances since Tokyo 2020 and he finished the race in 7:53.10.
Six months later, at the World Aquatics Championships, he shaved off 11.13 seconds in the 800m heats and a further 4.97 in the final. His finishing time in Fukuoka was lower than the 1:41.87 that won Finke Olympic gold in the event in 2021.
"I'm so happy to just drop a lot of my time and just be the first (to swim so fast) in a new suit," Hafnaoui said. "Bobby, he was one of the guys that pushed me to do that."