BLOOMINGTON — Indiana swimming and diving’s Ahmed Hafnaoui broke the 1,500-meter freestyle championship record on the way to his second world title of the week, and Lilly King medaled twice on the final day of the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships Sunday (July 30) in Japan.
Indiana swimming and diving totaled nine medals during the two weeks in Fukuoka.
Hafnaoui held off Team USA’s Bobby Finke in the 1,500 free, out-touching the American by five hundredths of a second to finish in a championship record 14:31.54 which is also the second-fastest time ever.
With the victory, Hafnaoui captured his second world title and third medal of the meet. On Wednesday, Hafnaoui posted the third-fastest time ever in the 800-meter freestyle in 7:37.00 for his first-career world championship. The Tunisian also took silver in the 400-meter freestyle, finishing second by just two tenths.
King brought her career World Championship medal total to 13 on Sunday with a victory in the 4×100-meter medley relay and silver in the 50-meter breaststroke. In the relay, King swam a 1:04.93 split in the breaststroke leg to give Team USA a lead of 2.37 seconds going into the final 200 meters before winning in 3:52.08.
During the meet, King also finished fourth in both the 100 breast (1:06.02) and 100 breast (2:22.25).
Making their World Championships debuts, current IU swimmers Anna Peplowski and Josh Matheny also contributed to IU and Team USA’s medal counts with preliminary performances in top-three finishing relays. Matheny took gold in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay and bronze in the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay, and Peplowski earned silver in the women’s 4×200-meter medley relay.
Indiana’s first medal came in the diving well as Jessica Parratto earned bronze in the women’s synchronized 10-meter event July 16. Andrew Capobianco just missed out on the men’s 3-meter podium a few days later, finishing fourth.
For full coverage of Indiana’s performance at the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships, click here.
