Incredible Ahmed Hafnaoui’s gold act in 400m freestyle

Tokyo: Nobody was watching Ahmed Hafnaoui in lane eight of the Olympic pool. All eyes were on the Tunisian teenager at the finish.

Hafnaoui was the stunning winner of the 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games on Sunday, beating a field of faster and older swimmers. The 18-year-old finished in 3 minutes, 43.26 seconds, punctuating his victory with loud yelling that echoed in the mostly empty 15,000-seat arena.

“I believe when I touched the wall and I saw myself first,” he said. “I was so surprised.”
Australia’s Jack McLoughlin earned silver and American Kieran Smith took bronze. The top three were separated by less than a second after the eight-lap race.

Meanwhile, Australia claimed a third straight gold in the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay in world-record time.

Bronte Campbell led them off at Tokyo Aquatics Center and her older sister Cate swam anchor to power the Aussies home in 3 minutes, 29.69 seconds, breaking the 3:30 mark and bettering their own world record of 3:30.05 set at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.

“Yeah, breaking a world record is incredible,” said Bronte Campbell. “We were just going out there to do our job.”

Simone Manuel and the U.S. team took bronze behind Canada.

Australia’s back-to-back-to-back Olympic victories have all been majorly impressive. The Aussies also won with a new WR at the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and set an Olympic record in London.

The Campbell siblings marked what might be their last contributions to the Australian 4×100 tradition by presenting each other with their gold medals. With no officials to hang medals over athletes’ necks at these Games because of Covid-19, the Campbells did it for each other, their own intimate family medal ceremony on the podium.

However, the Americans are off to a flying start. Displaying their trademark depth, the U.S. earned six of 12 medals Sunday on the first morning of finals, showing no signs of slipping even without Michael Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.

From Chase Kalisz’s gold in the 400-meter individual medley to Kieran Smith pulling out a bronze in his first major international competition, there was plenty of red, white and blue on the medal podium in the largely empty arena.

“We were in the warmup pool seeing people get a gold medal, get second, get second and third. It was crazy,” said Abbey Weitzeil, who was part of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team that claimed a bronze in the final event of the session. “It just fired us up and got us really excited.”

Kalisz got things rolling with his victory in the grueling medley, making up for a second-place showing at the 2016 Rio Games. Jay Litherland rallied on the final leg to give the Americans a 1-2 finish that set the tone for the rest of the morning.

Japan’s Yui Ohashi took gold in the women’s 400 IM — making up a bit for Seto’s flop — but two Americans were right on her heels.

Olympic rookie Emma Weyant grabbed the silver, while 27-year-old Hali Flickinger took bronze for her first career medal.

Results: Men’s: 400m Individual Medley: 1. Kalisz Chase (USA) 4:09.42s, 2. Litherland Jay (USA), 3. Brendon Smith (Aus); 400m freestyle: 1. Hafnaoui Ahmed (Tunisia) 3:43.36s, 2. Jack McLoughin (Aus), 3. Kieran Smith (USA).

Women’s: 400m Individual medley: 1. Ohashi Yui (Japan) 4:32.08s, 2. Weyant Emma (USA), 3. Hali Flickinger (USA); Women’s 4x100m freestyle: 1. Australia (3:29.69 WR), 2. Canada, 3. USA