At the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui provided one of the biggest shocks of the Games when the then 18-year-old stormed to gold in the 400m freestyle, winning the race from Lane 8, having made it to the final as the slowest of the eight qualifiers.
Hafnaoui shaved nearly three seconds off his personal best in Tokyo and earned huge praise – including from the legendary Michael Phelps – for his astonishing achievement.
After Tokyo, Hafnaoui went to Indiana University to study and join their swimming programme, but was ineligible to compete for the Hoosiers in the 2022/23 season for academic reasons. The Tunisian needed some time to work on his English, and accilimatise to his new environment, and was given “partial qualifier” status to maintain his scholarship and train with his teammates. He will be able to compete for Indiana starting the fall.
Not being able to represent his university in the NCAAs doesn’t mean Hafnaoui wasn’t tirelessly working on his craft and making gains in the pool.
On Wednesday in Fukuoka, Japan, the North African became a world champion in the 800m freestyle as he topped the podium ahead of Samuel Short of Australia and Bobby Finke of USA with a time of 7:37.00 (third-fastest time ever in that event). A couple of days earlier, he secured silver in the 400m free, setting a new African record in the process, and he still has the 1,500m race to come at these World Championships.
The Tunisian prodigy has sent out a serious signal of intent in Fukuoka, and with the Paris 2024 Olympics exactly one year away, he has provided a welcome reminder that there is plenty to look forward to, from a Middle East and North Africa perspective, at the Games.
Egyptian swimmers will be looking to emulate Hafnaoui’s success at the Olympics with Marwan El Kamash and Abdelrahman Sameh both setting new national records in their respective races in Fukuoka this past week.
El Kamash was 10th-fastest in the 800m freestyle heats, missing out on the final by just two spots and breaking his compatriot Ahmed Akram’s previous Egyptian mark by more than three seconds.
Meanwhile, Sameh set a new Egyptian record by making it through the heats and the semi-finals to qualify for the 50m butterfly final with a time of 22.94 seconds.
Another Olympic medallist from Tunisia who made his mark in Tokyo is taekwondo practitioner Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi. He first made headlines as a Bruno Fernandes look-alike but soon became known for his impressive silver-medal performance in the -58kg category in Tokyo.
Last November, Jendoubi topped the world rankings in his weight class for the first time. Currently No 1 in the Olympic rankings and No 3 in the world, he added 20 valuable points to his Olympic bank by clinching gold in the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Challenger in Dakar this week.
The top five in the rankings at the end of 2023 qualify automatically for Paris 2024 and it’s hard to imagine Jendoubi won’t be one of them. He will be aiming to finish one step higher on the Olympic podium next year.
In football earlier this month, Morocco’s men's team beat Egypt in the final of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations as both Arab countries secured their spots in the Paris 2024 Games.
Egypt’s Ibrahim Adel was named best player of the tournament, while Morocco and Barcelona winger Abdessamad Ezzalzouli was top scorer with three goals.
More Arab nations have the chance to qualify through Asia and given what Morocco were able to achieve in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, U23 teams from the region will be keen to show there’s more talent in the pipeline capable of excelling on the global stage.
In tennis, Tunisia's Ons Jabeur and Egypt's Mayar Sherif will hope to contend on the clay courts of Roland Garros in Paris 2024. The club, which hosts the French Open every year and will provide the venue for the tennis event at next year’s Olympics, has been a happy hunting ground for Jabeur in the past. The world No 6 won the Roland Garros junior title in 2011 and made the women’s quarter-finals this year, narrowly missing out on a spot in the semis. Sherif is a clay specialist and will fancy her chances in a competition that has witnessed many surprises in previous editions of the Games.
In athletics, three-time high jump world champion and reigning Olympic gold medallist Mutaz Barshim of Qatar will be gunning for another medal but this time he won’t be sharing it with anyone if given the chance. In Tokyo, Barshim and his good friend and rival Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy chose to share the Olympic gold medal after they both cleared 2.37m in the final. If given the chance again, they have said they will continue to compete until one of them prevails. Barshim recently secured gold in the Diamond League stop in Silesia, Poland with a world-leading 2.36m jump and the 32-year-old Qatari believes he can still scale 2.40m.
“I think I still have a 2.40 jump in me, hopefully this year,” the 32-year-old said.
Barshim has won two silvers and one gold at the Olympics since he made his debut at the London 2012 Games.
Meanwhile, Ziad El Sissy became Egypt’s first ever medallist at a Fencing World Championship on Tuesday in Milan when he took bronze in individual sabre. Now ranked No 4 in the world and No 3 in the Olympic rankings, El Sissy, who is married to squash world No 1 Nouran Gohar, will have his eyes on emulating his compatriot Alaa Abouelkassem, who became Africa’s first Olympic fencing medallist when he took silver at London 2012.
UAE and Saudi Arabia have qualified teams for equestrian showjumping in Paris 2024 after securing spots in a direct qualifier event in Doha in February. The Saudis won a team bronze at the London Olympics 11 years ago, while the UAE will be sending a full team of showjumpers to the Games for the first time.
“It is very exciting for our country,” Emirati showjumper Abdullah Al Marri said in an interview with the FEI website.
“The UAE rarely qualifies for team events in the Olympics and tends not to have too many athletes overall. Now we have a great opportunity to encourage the whole country to get behind us, support us and maybe discover an interest or love for equestrian sports. That is an exciting prospect.”
Exciting prospects are aplenty for the Mena region as the countdown or the 2024 Olympics begins.
Arab athletes won 18 medals in Tokyo in 2021. Since then, we’ve witnessed several impressive performances from the region on some of sport’s grandest stages. More and more young talents are emerging in the Arab world at a time when there are numerous Arab sporting heroes shining globally and inspiring others. More athletic scholarships are being offered to our teenagers in the United States, where they get to train with and compete against the very best. More European clubs are recruiting our footballers. More players want to be the next Ons Jabeur or Mohamed Salah. Our athletes have something way more potent than talent and ambition. They now have belief.
