Tunisia’s only previous Olympic swimming gold medals were won by Oussama Mellouli, who won the 1,500m title in Beijing in 2008 and then the 10km marathon swim in London 2012.
Mellouli had served a retrospective suspension for testing positive for the stimulant adderall leading up to Beijing, which he said had been used to help with an academic paper rather than to aid his swimming.
McLoughlin was asked if he had any concerns about the doping testing procedures in the lead up to these Olympics amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “Back at home we have had rigorous testing, just like normal,” he said. “And I think throughout the world it has been the same. Since we have been here we have had so many tests and the Japanese have done a really good job at drug testing everybody.”
Mellouli, who is now 37, will also swim in the 10km open water swimming in Tokyo. Hafnaoui will swim again in the 800m freestyle on Tuesday. “I have a great relationship with him (Mellouli),” he said. “He wished me good luck before the race. And I wish him well in the 10k open water. He is a legend. I wish to be like him one day.”
Team GB’s Max Litchfield earlier suffered heartbreak in the men’s individual 400m medley, finishing fourth for the second consecutive Olympics and missing out on the bronze medal by just 0.21 sec from Australia’s Brendon Smith.
In a close race, Litchfield had trailed in eighth after the butterfly leg but moved up to sixth after the backstroke and then fifth following the breaststroke before ultimately tying with Hungary’s David Verraszte in fourth.
Litchfield was so upset that he could barely talk and said that it was “harder” than Rio but would make him even more determined. “I’ve done everything I can these last five years, just not quite enough,” he said.
Aimee Wilmott also repeated her Rio place in the women’s 400m individual medley, again finishing seventh after qualifying second for the final. Wilmott, who had lost her UK Sport funding in 2018 but still bounced back to win Commonwealth Games gold, will now retire.
The women’s 4x100m freestyle team of Anna Hopkin, Abbie Wood, Lucy Hope and Freya Anderson also finished sixth in a new national record of 3 min 33.96 sec. Australia won gold with a new world record.