World Championships: Ahmed Jaouadi Achieves Double Distance Gold With 1500 Triumph
The dominant force in distance swimming this year is Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi, the 20-year-old whose steady ascent in recent years culminated this week in Singapore. He pulled away from a pair of tough Germans to win the 800 free title, and now he has taken care of business over 30 lengths to defeat a field including two-time Olympic champion and world-record holder Bobby Finke.
Jaouadi did not hold the lead for most of the race, but no one in the field could counter his closing speed, as was the case earlier in the week in the 800 free. Jaouadi becomes the sixth swimmer to sweep the distance events at the World Championships since the 800 free was added to the slate in 2001.
Finke was coming off a wire-to-wire win in the Olympic final last year, and he opted for a similar approach here, although Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany and Türkiye’s Kuzey Tuncelli each took turns leading over the first 100 meters. Finke then opened up a slight lead for the early portion of the event, jumping out by three tenths at the 500-meter mark.
Over the middle portion of the race, however, Finke received a significant challenge from the two men who topped the field in the 800 free, Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi and Germany’s Sven Schwarz. Schwarz took over the lead after 700 meters, and he and Jaouadi then traded off the lead in the ensuing lengths, with Finke not far back. Before the 1000-meter mark, the three men broke away from Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, the 2019 world champion in the event who won three gold medals in open water in Singapore.
The identities of the three medalists were assured for most of the last 500 meters, but it took until the last 200 meters for the placements to sort out. It was no surprise that Jaouadi was the swimmer with the most energy left to change gears and explode in front. Schwarz tried to respond, but he lacked the blazing kick of the 20-year-old Tunisian coming down the stretch, a half-second deficit becoming an advantage of 1.28 seconds by the finish.
Jaouadi completed the distance double with a time of 14:34.41, becoming the third Tunisian man to win a world title in the 30-lap event. Previously, Ous Mellouli won Olympic gold in 2008 and a world title in 2009 while Ahmed Hafnaoui took down Finke in an epic 1500-meter showdown two years ago. His swim made Jaouadi the sixth-fastest performer in history, 0.15 quicker than the mark by Australia’s Grant Hackett that stood as the world record for 11 years.
“Struggle. I knew that everyone was struggling and feeling the pain. I wasn’t the only one. My body was in a lot of pain. But through my mind is that I want this medal and I want to win it. I just tried being the strongest one mentally. It was a good one, because all of the boys swam a good race,” Jaouadi said. “I know in Tunisia we don’t typically have a lot of medalists in this event, because there’s not a lot of swimmers from Tunisia, and of course I’m proud to represent my country and get the medal.”
Schwarz came in for silver in 14:35.69, breaking his best time by a second to jump one spot into eighth in the all-time rankings. He was just eight tenth’s off Wellbrock’s national record of 14:34.69.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Schwarz said. “I can’t believe I was able to do this and I’m really proud of myself to get two medals here. I need some time to process this and we’ll see what will be next.”
Bronze went to Finke, with the American overcoming significant impacts from the gastrointestinal illness that has ravaged the American team to win a third World Championships medal in the event. His energy largely zapped, Finke was unable to switch into a higher gear down the stretch, but he still came in at 14:36.60, about six seconds off his world record of 14:30.67 set in Tokyo.
“I was just trying to go by feel. This meet’s been quite a whirlwind. I’m disappointed with my results, but that’s on me. I just have to do better next year,” Finke said in an interview with NBC Sports. “I’m happy to be on the podium. It’s obviously not the place I want. My endurance was a little bit better after the 800, and I think it showed there.”
