{"id":14680,"date":"2021-07-26T16:49:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T16:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=14680"},"modified":"2021-07-26T14:40:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T14:40:45","slug":"tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020","title":{"rendered":"Tunisian teen strikes gold, Africa\u2019s first medal at Olympics 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>On the day Tunisians marked the moment the monarchy was abolished in 1957, they will have permitted themselves to at least celebrate an Olympic king after a sensational performance in Tokyo from swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old produced a devastating late burst way out in lane eight on Sunday — Republic Day in Tunisia — to win the 400 metres freestyle in 3min 43.36sec, overhauling Australian Jack McLoughlin.<\/p>\n

“When I saw the flag of my country being raised and I heard the national anthem I had tears in my eyes,” he said afterwards.<\/p>\n

“I felt so proud. I dedicate this title to all the Tunisian people.<\/p>\n

“You have a champion now!”<\/p>\n

His gold, combined with compatriot Ons Jabeur’s eye-catching run to the Wimbledon women’s quarter-finals, has allowed sport to provide a welcome distraction for the hard-pressed Tunisian people this summer.<\/p>\n

There could be more to come as Hafnaoui bids to add the 800m freestyle title on Tuesday — and his idol, double Olympic swimming champion Oussama Mellouli, will attempt to win a third career gold when he tackles the 10 kilometres open water event at the grand old age of 37 on August 5.<\/p>\n

Jabeur may have lost her first-round match at the Olympics on Sunday — perhaps her Wimbledon exertions took their toll — but she has done her bit off the court too.<\/p>\n

Tunisia is facing a record number of coronavirus contaminations with public hospitals facing an unprecedented influx of patients.<\/p>\n

Jabeur announced a fortnight ago she was auctioning one of her racquets to help Tunisian hospitals fight Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Jabeur, who will add a personal donation to the amount collected during the sale, said the money raised would be used to buy “drugs and medical equipment”.<\/p>\n

Jabeur’s long-term goal is for her exploits to inspire more Arabic women, especially North African, to take up tennis.<\/p>\n

‘Took a risk’<\/b><\/p>\n

The success of Hafnaoui, eight years younger than Jabeur, appeared to be as much of a surprise to him as to his rivals and most of those watching.<\/p>\n

His Tunis-based coach Jabrane Touili danced up and down the rows of empty seats left empty because of the coronavirus-related ban on spectators.<\/p>\n

“I train alone with my coaches, it is difficult but the result speaks for itself,” Hafnaoui said.<\/p>\n

The teenager’s basketball player father inspired him to take up swimming.<\/p>\n

“He told me to try my hand at swimming because it is good for one’s health and for building up the body,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With time I began to gain in confidence.<\/p>\n

“These last two years I began to win races at Arab and African meetings and further afield like at the French championships.”<\/p>\n

Little wonder then that Hafnaoui said his thoughts turned to his parents as he stood on the medal podium.<\/p>\n

Before the Games began, Mellouli praised his younger compatriot but there were words of warning for him too — which ring ever more pertinently now.<\/p>\n

“I am happy to pass the torch to him,” he told Tunisian radio station IFM in July.<\/p>\n

“Ayoub (Hafnaoui’s middle name) has had some difficult times.<\/p>\n

“He had to give up his studies so he could succeed in swimming.<\/p>\n

“He took a risk as regards his future. I hope he will strike a balance between his financial and psychological welfare.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. On the day Tunisians marked the moment the monarchy was abolished in 1957, they will have permitted themselves to at least celebrate an Olympic king after a sensational performance in Tokyo from swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui. The 18-year-old produced a devastating late burst way out in lane eight on Sunday — Republic Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-14680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nTunisian teen strikes gold, Africa\u2019s first medal at Olympics 2020 - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the day Tunisians marked the moment the monarchy was abolished in 1957, they will have permitted themselves to at lea ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tunisian teen strikes gold, Africa\u2019s first medal at Olympics 2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the day Tunisians marked the moment the monarchy was abolished in 1957, they will have permitted themselves to at lea ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-26T16:49:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60fec958d18cf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tunisian teen strikes gold, Africa\u2019s first medal at Olympics 2020\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-26T16:49:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\"},\"wordCount\":561,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60fec958d18cf.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/tunisian-teen-strikes-gold-africas-first-medal-at-olympics-2020\",\"name\":\"Tunisian teen strikes gold, Africa\u2019s first medal at Olympics 2020 - 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