Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi dominates men’s 800m freestyle as former champions struggle with illness
19:06 local time (GMT+8)
The Olympic champions of the 800m freestyle were dethroned on the first race of the evening with Tunisia’s Ahmed Jouadi producing the third-fastest ever time, and the fastest in a textile suit, to win his first long-course world title.
The 20-year-old, who was fourth in this event at Paris 2024, took the lead ahead of the halfway mark and increased the gap until touching the wall in a time of 7:36.88.
Germany’s Sven Schwarz and Lukas Martens kept pace with the Tunisian as best they could and finished one and two, respectively with 7:39.96 and 7:40.19 on the clock.
“It feels great. To be honest, especially with this season, I didn’t go back to trainings before March so I didn’t have a lot of time to get ready and be ready for this, especially after the Budapest (2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships 25m) I went into some kind of depression and I wasn’t ready to go back to training at some point,” Jaouadi said, going on to reference Tokyo 2020 400m freestyle champion and compatriot Ahmed Hafnaoui. “It makes me really happy because this one was for Hafnaoui and he’s having some hard times now and I would like to offer it for him.”
The Tokyo 2020 champion in the event, Bobby Finke of USA, fell back at the start of the early, but was not able to produce his signature sprint to the finish, ending up in fourth in a time of 7:46.42. Meanwhile, fellow Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen set a world record pace from Lane 1 at first but soon faded out to finish last in the final. The Irishman’s preparation for the event was hampered by a bout of appendicitis.
Sam Short was another notable casualty of illness. Arriving to Singapore 2025 with the fastest time in the 800m free on paper, the Australian had to pull out of the final due to food poisoning.