2025 Worlds, Day 4 Africa Recap: Tunisa’s Jaouadi Joins Mellouli & Hafnaoui as Worlds Medalist

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Entry Book
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3| Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Another day and another gold medal for the continent of Africa.

After a strong performance in the prelims of the 800 free on day 3, Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi consolidated his position as one of the top distance swimmers in the world. The 20-year-old, who jumped into the swimming world’s view last summer with a 4th place finish in the 800 and a 6th place finish in Paris, has been on a tear since then despite taking some time off. At Short Course Worlds he claimed the bronze in the 800 and reigned supreme in the 1500, winning the event and beating out the world record holder Florian Wellbrock.

Jaouadi had a quiet spring, and there were some questions swirling about his fitness, but they were answered and then some in the final of the 800. The top seed bided his time and let 400 WR holder Lukas Martens and Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen set the early pace, but the Tunisian made his move at the the 350 mark and continued to deliver spits in the 28 highs to slowly outdistance his competition. With the gap growing ever 50 and the space to chase him down decreasing, Joauadi’s victory seemed all but certain but what might have been more impressive was the time. Touching in 7:36.88, the Tunisian smashed his personal best by over five seconds and established himself not only as the 3rd fastest performer of all time, but his swim clocks in as the fastest ever in a textile suit.

Jaouadi, speaking after the race, was very candid about his feelings entering the meet and what this swim means for him, saying, “Actually, it means a lot. It’s the third best time ever… it feels great. Especially with this season. I didn’t go back to training until March. I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this. Especially after Budapest, I got into some kind of depression, I wasn’t ready to go back to training at some point. It makes me really happy.

He added, “During the last days of training, I was expecting this, and I knew that I will go fast. But at some point, I didn’t have a lot of confidence going through. But my team, my staff, the people around me knew how to control things, take things in control, and helped me through this.”

In a rather cruel twist of fate or perhaps by design, the type of training put forth when younger, Jaoudi’s time, despite being the third fastest ever, is not a new national record, as Ous Mellouli still holds that accolade with his 7:35.27 from the 2009 World Championships. While the University of Florida and now the German training group based in Magdeburg have been getting a lot of acclaim for their results, three of the fastest four swimmers in this event all hail from Tunisia, albeit all trained in different locations, as the aforementioned Mellouli ranking second and their compatriot, Ahmed Hafnaoui sitting in 4th with his winning time from Fukuoka.

Top 5 Men’s LCM Performances All-Time

1. 7:32.12 – Zhang Lin (CHN), 2009
2. 7:35.27 – Ous Mellouli (TUN), 2009
3. 7:36.88 – Ahmed Jaouadi (TUN), 2025
4. 7:37.00 – Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN) – 2023
5. 7:37.76 – Sam Short (AUS) -2023

Between the three of them, they own all 10 of their nation’s medals at the World Championships, with every single one coming in a distance of 400 meters or longer, with Mellouli leading the way with six medals (he also has two open water medals from the World Championships).

Other Day 4 Continental News

•  South African breaststroke Chris Smith took a big leap into trying to fill the gap left when Cameron van der Burgh retired. Smith entered the meet with a seed time of 1:01.02 in the 100 breast and cut .17 off to record a time of 1:00.85 but failed to advance to the semifinals. However, in the 50 breast Smith made the final and cut .14 off his seed to finish 6th overall with a time of 26.75. His result, a new PB, came with .21 of van der Burgh’s African record of 26.54 set back in 2017.

Continental Medal Table

Continental Records

• Men’s 100 Back: Pieter Coetze – 51.85

National Records

• Benin
  • Alexis Kpade: Men’s 100 Back – 57.25
• Cape Verde
  • Shearer, Pina, Dacruz, Tati: Mixed Medley Relay – 4:32.16
• Kenya
  • Haniel Kudwoli: Men’s 100 Breast– 1:04.92
  • Thorpe, Kudwoli, Nyoike, Mose: Mixed Medley Relay – 4:07.72
• Libya
  • Anas Ganedi: Men’s 100 Breast– 1:09.89
  • Anas Ganedi: Men’s 50 Breast– 31.14
• Maldives
  • Mohamed Rihan Shiham: Men’s 200 Fly – 2:25.20
  • Mirsaad, Hussain, Shiham, Latheef: Mixed Medley Relay – 4:40.23
• Morocco
  • Samy Boutouil: Men’s 50 Breast – 27.78
  • Marwane Sebbata: Men’s 100 Free – 50.04
• Mozambique
  • Kaio Faftine: Men’s 200 IM – 2:10.48
• Namibia
  • Ronan Wantenaar: Men’s 50 Breast – 26.85
• Senegal
  • Oumy Diop: Women’s 50 Back – 29.38
• Seychelles
  • Adam Moncherry: Men’s 50 Fly – 24.84
• South Africa
  • Pieter Coetze: Men’s 100 Back – 51.85
• Tanzania
  • Collins Saliboko: Men’s 100 Free – 53.10
• Uganda
  • Jesse Ssengonzi: Men’s 50 Fly – 24.32
  • Namutebi, Mukalazi, Ssengonzi, Muzito: Mixed Medley Relay – 4:07.72
• Zambia
  • Zach Moyo: Men’s 100 Breast – 1:05.64
  • Zach Moyo: Men’s 50 Breast – 29.04