Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, who authored arguably the biggest swimming upset of the Tokyo Olympics, is not entered in the world championships that start Saturday in Budapest.
Hafnaoui, a 19-year-old expected to begin his college career at Indiana later this year, has no recorded results in 2022 on his FINA profile.
He entered Tokyo ranked 17th in the world in the 400m free for the year, qualified for the final in the eighth and last place (by .14 of a second) and won from lane eight. Hafnaoui lowered his personal best by 2.8 seconds between the heats and final.
In Hafnaoui’s absence, the men’s 400m free favorites at worlds include German Lukas Martens, fastest in the world this year by 1.5 seconds, and Australians Elijah Winnington (second in the world this year) and Rio Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton.
Hafnaoui joins the list of individual Tokyo Olympic champions who will not swim those events at worlds for various reasons: Yevgeny Rylov (100m and 200m backstrokes), Adam Peaty (100m breaststroke), Emma McKeon (50m and 100m frees, 100m butterfly) Ariarne Titmus (200m, 400m frees), Lydia Jacoby (100m breast), Tatjana Schoenmaker (200m breast) and Maggie Mac Neil (100m fly)
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