Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui has won gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.
Hafnaoui clocked 7:37.00 in the 800m freestyle competition to emerge the winner, ahead of Australian Samuel Short, who clocked 7:37.76 to bag silver medal, and USA’s Bobby Finke (7:38.67), who took bronze.
This is the first gold medal for the 20-year-old Hafnaoui in the World Aquatics Championships. He will also compete in the 1500m freestyle at the championships, which are being held in Fukuoka, Japan.
The World Aquatics Championships is a global competition for six aquatics sports, which are swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming and water polo.
Winning history
Aged 18, Hafnaoui won gold medal in the 400m freestyle race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. He clocked a time of 3:43.36 to win the final ahead of Australia’s Jack McLoughlin and Kieran Smith of USA.
Hafnaoui became the first Tunisian Olympic champion in swimming since Oussama Mellouli had won gold in 1500m freestyle at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China in 2008 and in 10 km open water in London, the UK in 2012.
At the 2018 African Swimming Championships in Algiers, Algeria, when he was 15 years old, Hafnaoui won bronze in 800m freestyle, 1500m freestyle and 400m individual medley along with a silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
