Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. After Worlds Double, Ahmed Hafnaoui Targeting ‘All Distance Events’ Still not yet 21, the results that Ahmed Hafnaoui has collected in the last two years beg a question: Where does the Tunisian star see his distance prowess taking him? Given the medals that are piling up, including two World Aquatics Championships gold medals and a silver, Hafnaoui is in no rush to specialize. “For now? All distance events,” Hafnaoui said, of his favorite of the three in which he’s starred internationally. “… It depends on the results, but the results now are awesome. I’m going to work for all the events, just trying to manage everything.” The results are awesome, to use as the technical term. Hafnaoui didn’t fly under anyone’s radar at Worlds in Fukuoka, not after sealing his place on the global scene as a relative unknown at the Tokyo Olympics by winning gold in the 400 freestyle from an outside lane. Given his frame at 6-5 and the strength with which he swims, that distance might have seemed on paper to be his strength. He reinforced that perception by starting Worlds with a battle against Sam Short of Australia, getting out-touched at the wall for silver to Short’s gold by .02 seconds. Hafnaoui’s time of 3:40.70, an African record, was more than two seconds quicker than what he used for Tokyo gold (3:43.36) and applies long-awaited pressure on Paul Biedermann’s super-suited record of 3:40.07 from the Rome Worlds in 2009. The progress in the 400 free is such that Hafnaoui’s Tokyo time would’ve been off the medal stand in Fukuoka, and the Tunisian deserves credit for moving that standard forward. Ahmed Hafnaoui: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto Had that been that, it would’ve been all fine and good to head to the Paris Olympic year with Hafnaoui as the favorite in the 400. But he was only getting started in Japan. Hafnaoui got his revenge on Short in the 800 free, going 7:37.00 for gold. (Somehow, Ous Mellouli’s 2009 African record in that survives; the race was so quick that Daniel Wiffen’s European record didn’t even get him a medal.) Then came the 1,500, the real paradigm shifter. Before the meet, Hafnaoui hadn’t broken 15 minutes, his best time of 15:00.24 coming March 1 at the TYR Pro Swim Series Fort Lauderdale. He clubbed more than 10 seconds off that to 14:49.53 in prelims, then uncorked a swim for the ages in a classic race in the final, resisting the final-50 push from the man who has elevated that to an art form, Bobby Finke, and getting his hand on the wall first in 14:31.54. He edged Finke by .05 seconds, the times the second- and third-fastest all-time, applying pressure on the 14:31.02 set by Sun Yang at the Olympics in 2012. “Bobby pushed me to do that,” a grateful Hafnaoui said. “I know he has the fastest finish, and I was trying to build my finish from the last 100. And I was successful. I thank Bobby for that. He pushed me to do the championship record.” Hafnaoui’s ascent in the 1,500 is so fast as to make his gold in the 400 in Tokyo look almost pedestrian. He had not posted a time inside the top 200 all-time before prelims in Fukuoka. That time was the 180th all-time. And now he’s up to No. 2. And so, the Tunisian will head into his first college season at Indiana University and into the Olympic year holding world titles over two distances and the Olympic crown over a third. Which makes his possibilities limitless. Though Hafnaoui has bigger (and faster) goals in mind. “It’s the biggest goal,” he said of the 1,500 world record belonging to Sun. “That’s what we’re going to work until Paris 2024 for.”
