Tunisia at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Infobox Olympics Tunisia
games=2004 Summer
competitors= 58 (48 men, 10 women)
sports= 14
flagbearer=Noureddine Hfaiedh
officials=

Tunisia competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Results by event

=Athletics=

Race walker Hatem Ghoula stayed with the leading group through 10 km, but fell back after that and came in more than 3 minutes behind to post Tunisia's best result of the Games in athletics. None of the other members of the Turkish team amanaged to advance out of the first round, though Sofiane Labidi was within 0.2 s of advancing to the second round of the Men's 400 metres.

Men's 400 metres:
* Sofiane Labidi
**Round 1: 46.04 s (3rd in heat 4, did not advance, 28th overall)

Men's 3000 metre Steeplechase:
* Lotfi Turki
**Round 1: Did not start

Men's 20 kilometre Walk:
* Hatem Ghoula
*1:22:59 (11th overall)

Women's Javelin Throw:
* Aida Sellam
**Round 1: 57.76 m (11th in Group B, did not advance, 24th overall)

=Boxing=

The Tunisian boxing team failed to win a single bout in Athens, going 0-5. Only Mohamed Sahraoui in the Middleweight competition managed to hold his opponent's margin of victory to single digits.

Men's Flyweight (51kg):
* Walid Cherif
** Round of 32:Lost to Nikoloz Izoria of Georgia (14 - 24)

Men's Featherweight (57kg):
* Saifeddine Nejmaoui
** Round of 32: Lost to Khedafi Djelkhir of France (13 - 38)

Men's Lightweight (60kg):
* Taoufik Chobba
** Round of 32: Lost to Anthony Little of Australia (8 - 27)

Men's Light Welterweight (64kg):
* Mohamed Ali Sassi
** Round of 32: Lost to Willy Blain of France (14 - 36)

Men's Middleweight (75kg):
* Mohamed Sahraoui
** Round of 32: Lost to Károly Balzsay of Hungary (24 - 29)

=Fencing=

Both Tunisian fencers lost their opening matches. Ben Aziza was 70 places lower in the world rankings than his American opponent, but Rebai was ranked ahead of Agresta, but was just barely beaten.

Men's Foil:
* (33) Maher Ben Aziza
**Round of 64: Lost to (32) Jonathan Tiomkin of the United States (10 - 15)

Men's Sabre:
* (32) Mohamed Rebai
**Round of 64: Lost to (33) Renzo Pasquale Zeglio Agresta of Brazil (14 - 15)

=Football (Soccer)=

The Tunisian men's team qualified for the Olympics after winning a very tight group with three other African football powers, Nigeria, Senegal and Egypt [cite news |author= |title=Games of the XXVIII. Olympiad Football Qualifying Tournament record |url=http://rsssf.com/tableso/ol2004q.html |work= Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation|date=Mar. 13, 2005 |accessdate=2008-06-26] . The three over-23 players named by coach Khemais Labidi were Khaled Fadhel, José Clayton and Mohamed Jedidi. All but four of the team played their club football in Tunisia with Espérance and Club Africain having 3 each.

Tunisia managed to earn four points from their three matches, including a back-and-forth win in their final game that featured the Serbians coming back to tie the game twice in the last 20 minutes before an 89th minute winning goal, and ended level on points with Australia, but Australia had better goal differential. The team's leading scorer was Ali Zitouni of Espérance with two goals.

Men's Competition:

* Team Roster
**Goalkeepers
***Khaled Fadhel
***Jasem Khalfaoui
**Defenders
***Anis Ayari
***Zied Bhairi
***Anis Boussaidi
*** José Clayton
***Karim Hagui
***Issam Merdassi
***Amir Haj Messoud
***Aleddine Yahia
**Midfielders
***Wissem Ben Yahia
***Khaled Mouelhi
***Houcine Ragued
***Majdi Traoui
**Forwards
***Sabeur Trabelsi
***Ali Zitouni
***Amine Letaief
***Mohamed Jedidi

Tunisia also had four alternate players, who are not counted as part of the official roster.
*Alternates
**Haykel Guemamdia (forward)
**Issam Jomaa (forward)
**Hamed Kasraoui (goalkeeper)
**Fethi Mechergui (midfielder)

* Group C
** Drew with Australia (1 - 1) (Ali Zitouni 69')
** Lost to Argentina (0 - 2)
** Defeated Serbia and Montenegro (3 - 2) (José Clayton 41', Mohamed Jedidi pen 83', Ali Zitouni 89')
*3rd in group, did not advance (4 points, 4 GF, 5 GA, -1 GD, 12th overall)

=Gymnastics=

Artistic

Wajdi Bouallegue was Tunisia's only gymnast at the Athens Games, and while he put together a respectable performance on the vault, he was well back of qualifying for any of the all-around or apparatus finals.

Men's All-Around:
*Wajdi Bouallegue
**Qualification: 52.511 points (47th overall, did not advance)
***Floor Exercise: 9.112 (57th overall, did not advance)
***Pommel Horse: 8.950 (63rd overall, did not advance)
***Rings: 8.562 (73rd overall, did not advance)
***Parallel Bars: 8.350 (77th overall, did not advance)
***Horizontal Bar: 8.512 (71st overall, did not advance)
***Vault: 9.025(one vault only)

=Judo=

Tunisia had never won any martial arts medal in the Olympics, but came very close to their first in the women's Heavyweight class, as Insaf Yahyaoui beat two South American judokas to reach the bronze medal match, but could only last a minute-and-a-half before losing. The overall record for Tunisian judkoas in Athens was 4-6.

Men's 60 kg (Extra-Lightweight):
* Anis Lounifi
**Round of 32: Defeated Pak Nam-Chol of North Korea (Harai-goshi; ippon - 1:28)
**Round of 16: Lost to Evgeny Stanev of Russia (Sukui-nage; ippon - 3:03)

Women's 63 kg (Half-Middleweight):
* Saida Dhahri
**Round of 32: Lost to Ayumi Tanimoto of Japan (Tate-shiho-gatame; ippon - 1:49) (advanced to first repechage round)
**Repechage Round 1: Defeated Diana Maza of Ecuador (Yoko-shiho-gatame; ippon - 3:18)
**Repechage Round 2: Lost to Marie Helen Chisholm of Canada (Yoko-shiho-gatame; ippon - 1:32)

Women's 78 kg (Half-Heayweight):
* Houda Ben Daya
**Round of 32: Bye
**Round of 16: Lost to Edinanci Silva of Brazil (Uchi-mata; ippon - 3:18)

Women's 78+ kg (Heavyweight):
* Insaf Yahyaoui
**Round of 32: Bye
**Round of 16: Lost to Sun Fuming of China (Yoko-shiho-gatame; ippon - 1:22) (advanced to first repechage round)
**Repechage Round 1: Bye
**Repechage Round 2: Defeated Carmen Chala of Ecuador (Soto-makikomi; waza-ari)
**Repechage Round 3: Defeated Giovanna Blanco of Venezuela (Kuzure-kesa-gatame; ippon - 2:41)
**Bronze Medal Match: Lost to Tea Donguzashvili of Georgia (Kesa-gatame; w'ari ippon - 1:28)

=Rowing=

Tunisia's only rower at the Games languished near the back of the pack in her first three races, but in the D final she proved herself the class of the lower echelon of the field, winning by two full seconds.

Women's Single Sculls:
*Ibtissem Trimech]
**Heat: 8:15.87 (6th in heat 2, advanced to repechage)
**Repechage: 7:56.19 (4th in repechage 2, advanced to semifinal C/D)
**Semifinal C/D: 8:14.73 (4th in semifinal C/D 2, advanced to final D)
**Final D: 7:51.21 (1st in Final D, 19th overall)

=Sailing=

Ourabi did not have any particularly notable results, never finishing higher than 15th.

Men's Mistral:
*Foued Ourabi
**211 points (23rd overall)

=Swimming=

Oussama Mellouli was a bronze medalist at the 2003 Worlds in the 400 metre IM, so he was a decent bet to become Tunisia's first Olympic swimming medallist, but he ended up falling 2 seconds short in the 400 metre IM final. He also just failed to make the final in the 200 metre IM, missing out by just 0.02 seconds. Still, Mellouli had a strong games, setting new African records with three of his swims.

Men's 200 metre Freestyle:
*Anouar Ben Naceur
**Heat: 1:54.69 (50th overall, did not advance)

Men's 1500 metre Freestyle:
*Oussama Mellouli
**Heat: 15:18.98 (14th overall, did not advance)

Men's 200 metre Individual Medley:
*Oussama Mellouli
**Heat: 2:01.94 (15th overall, "Qualified") ("African Record")
**Semifinal: 2:01.11 (9th overall, did not advance) ("African Record")

Men's 400 metre Individual Medley:
*Oussama Mellouli
**Heat: 4:16.68 (T-6th overall, "Qualified")
**Final: 4:14.49 (5th overall)("African Record")

=Table Tennis=

The two Tunisian women were both ranked outside the world top 500, and were large underdogs in their matches, and neither managed to get a set closer than 11-7. They had better luck when teamed together for the doubles, drawing another unheralded North African team and beating them before falling in the second round to a Taiwanese pair.

Women's Singles:
*Nesrine Ben Kahia
**Round 1: Lost to Silvija Erdelji of Serbia and Montenegro (3 - 11, 1 - 11, 3 - 11, 7 - 11)

*Olfa Guenni
**Round 1: Lost to Petra Cada of Canada (4 - 11, 7 - 11, 4 - 11, 7 - 11)

Women's Doubles:
*Nesrine Ben Kahia and Olfa Guenni
**Round 1: Defeated Asma Menaifi and Souad Nechab of Algeria (11 - 9, 11 - 7, 11 - 5, 9 - 11, 8 - 11, 11 - 8)
**Round 2: Lost to Huang I-Hua and Lu Yun-Feng of Chinese Taipei (4 - 11, 4 - 11, 6 - 11, 4 - 11)

=Taekwondo=

The Tunisian Taekwondo team put up a 2-4 record, with both wins coming in the Men's under 80 kg class, where Hichem Hamdouni won a bout in both the main draw and the repechage, but was finally elimnated by Asian champion Yossef Karami.

Men's Under 68kg:
*Mohamed Omrani
**Round of 16: Lost to Carlo Massimino of Australia (2 - 7) Men's Under 80kg:
*Hichem Hamdouni
**Round of 16: Defeated Jacob Martins Obiorah of Nigeria (16 - 11)
**Quarterfinal: Lost to Bahri Tanrikulu of Turkey (4 - 6) (advanced to first repechage round)
**Repechage Round 1: Defeated Donald David Geisler of Philippines (Referee stopped contest; Round 2, 1:41)
**Repechage Round 2: Lost to Yossef Karami of Iran (4 - 12)

Women's Under 67kg:
*Mounira Nahdi
**Round of 16: Lost to Mouna Benabderassoul of Morocco (2 - 6)

=Volleyball=

Indoor

The Tunisian volleyball team was one of the best on the continent, claiming 8 African championships, including in 2003 to claim the Olympic Qualfiying spot, but little was expected from them, as they had never finished above 18th in a World Championship. Tunisia's results met this expectation, as they failed to win a single match, though they did manage to force a fifth set against Argentina. The team's leading scorer was Marouane Fehri from the C.O. Kelibia club.

Men's Competition:

* Team Roster
** Khaled Belaid
**Walid Ben Abbes
**Mehrez Berriri "Libero"
**Mohamed Salim Chekili
**Marouane Fehri
**Mahdi Gara
**Chaker Ghezal
**Ghazi Guidara "Captain"
**Noureddine Hfaiedh
**Hosni Karamosly
**Samir Sellami
**Mohamed Trabelsi

* Pool A
** Lost to Greece (20 - 25, 14 - 25, 17 - 25)
** Lost to Argentina (20 - 25, 25 - 23, 16 - 25, 25 - 22, 10 -15)
** Lost to Serbia and Montenegro (16 - 25, 18 - 25, 21 - 25)
** Lost to Poland (18 - 25, 25 - 23, 19 - 25, 23 - 25)
** Lost to France (23 - 25, 25 - 18, 19 - 25, 19 - 25)
*6th in group, did not advance (5 points, 4 SW ,15 SL, 373 PW, 451 PL, T-11th overall)

=Weightlifting=

Weightlifting had some medal potential for Tunisia, but it was unrealized, as Sbai failed to post a valid lift in the Men's 69kg, and Sassi had the best finish of Tunisia's whole delegation at 4th in the 63 kg division. Sassi was not particularly close to a medal, though, as even if she had made the maximum weight she attempted in each portion, she would have placed 4th.

Men's 69 kg:
*Youssef Sbai
**Did not finish

Sbai missed all three of his attempts at a 147.5 kg Snatch, which would have placed him 4th in that portion.

Women's 63 kg:
*Hayet Sassi
**215.0 kg (95.0 kg Snatch, 120.0 Clean & Jerk, 4th overall)

=Wrestling=

Tunisia's lone wrestler lost all of her matches by fall, never made it to even the four-and-a-half minute mark of a match, and finished dead last without a single point.

Women's 48 kg:
* Fadhila Louati
**Pool 3
***Lost to Fani Psatha of Greece (Fall; 4:19)
***Lost to Irini Merleni of Ukraine (Fall; 1:45)
***Lost to Lidiya Karamchakova of Tajikistan (Fall; 1:50)
**4th in pool, did not advance (0 TP, 0 CP, 14th overall)

Non-competing athletes

Two athletes, Abir Nakli in the women's 800 metres and Hamdi Dhouibi in the men's decathlon appear on the IOC entry list from August 16th, 2004, but did not compete in their respective events.

Officials

*President: Dr. Abdelhamid Slama
*Secretary General: Hédi Abdeljaoued

ee also

* Tunisia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
* Tunisia at the 2005 Mediterranean Games

References

* [http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2004/Results/ Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad]