By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
The Tunisian legacy in men’s distance swimming dates back two decades to the days of Oussama Mellouli, who won an upset gold medal in the men’s 1500 freestyle at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, upending the two-time defending champion and one of the greatest distance swimmers in history, Grant Hackett.
Mellouli, who went on to win the 2009 world title and the 2012 Olympic bronze medal in the 1500, was followed by Ahmed Hafnaoui, who broke onto the scene with his surprise 400 free gold medal in Tokyo but followed up by claiming the 800 and 1500 free world titles last year with two of the fastest swims ever.
Despite Hafnaoui’s withdrawal from the upcoming Olympic Games, Tunisia won’t be without a threat in the 1500 in Paris, as Ahmed Jaouadi has thrown his name in the mix after a monster performance at the recently-concluded French Elite Championships.
Jaouadi, 19, made his presence known in the swimming community earlier this year when he dropped a time of 3:45.95 in the 400 free, well under the Olympic qualifying time (3:46.78) and nearly two seconds under his personal best.
At the French Elite Championships last week in the 1500 free, Jaouadi went head-to-head with France’s best and came out on top, pulling away from David Aubry and Damien Joly on the back half to touch first in a time of 14:48.69.
The swim for Jaouadi marked a seismic personal best, lowering his previous mark of 15:10.11 set in March at the Camille Muffat Giant Series meet. The swim moved him into 10th in the world rankings this season and 42nd all-time. His previous PB ranked 239th all-time.
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At the same competition, Jaouadi also dropped six seconds to claim victory in the 800 free, clocking 7:45.31 to give him three individual events at the Paris Olympics.
Although men’s distance swimming is arguably as deep as it’s ever been globally, and Jaouadi is still multiple seconds back of the big favorites heading to Paris, he cannot be underestimated with his rapid improvement curve…and what Hafnoaui did last time.
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SwimSwam: arena Swim of the Week: Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi Drops Big For 14:48 1500 Free In France
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