African Swimming Championships 2026: Algeria’s Abdellah Ardjoune claims dwelling gold, as Egypt’s Mohannad Yasser dominates males’s 200m freestyle

Abdellah Ardjoune was simply the most well-liked man on the Piscine Olympic Miloud-Hadefi on Wednesday, 6 May, holding off Egypt’s Abdelrahman Amr to assert the boys’s 200m freestyle continental title in a time of two:02.40 on the 2026 African Swimming Championships.

While the 25-year-old Algerian had established himself early within the race, Amr sought to reel within the three-time medallist on the African Swimming Championships within the remaining 50 metres – one thing the house crowd wouldn’t tolerate.

Growing from shouts of encouragement to a full blown roar of help, they willed Ardjoune in direction of the wall, and his first-ever gold medal on the African Swimming Championships. Amr completed runner-up in a time of two:03.80, adopted by South Africa’s Juan Boshoff in 2:04.00.

Egyptian followers couldn’t be too upset with the result, nevertheless, as Mohannad Yasser delivered a session-defining efficiency within the males’s 200m freestyle, powering forward of South Africa’s Matthew Caldwell to assert the continental crown with a time of 1:49.35.

Caldwell, already continental champion within the males’s 800m freestyle, touched the wall second at 1:50.73 – greater than a second forward of Algeria’s Fares Benzidoun, who rounded out the rostrum in 1:51.97. 

Tunisia’s Habiba Belghith managed to place a 3rd nation on the winner’s rostrum within the ladies’s 100m breaststroke, claiming victory in 1:12.05, whereas Senegal’s Oumy Diop dominated the ladies’s 50m butterfly with a time of 27.03 seconds.

More motion is due up from the 2026 African Swimming Championships on Thursday, 7 May, with the 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 50m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 400m particular person medley and the 4x200m freestyle relay set to take centre stage in Oran.