Swimmer Siobhan Haughey wins Hong Kong’s first world gold ever, taking pole position in women’s 200km freestyle
Hong Kong Free Press
Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong won the first long-course world title of her career by taking gold in the women’s 200m freestyle on Wednesday.
Haughey, the Olympic silver medallist at both the 100m and 200m free in Tokyo, also gave Hong Kong the first world gold in its history.
She touched first in 1min 54.89sec, ahead of New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather and Brianna Throssell of Australia.
Haughey, 26, who has won three short-course world golds in her career, grabbed her chance with the three medallists from the Fukuoka world championships last year missing from the lineup in Doha.
“It means so much to me, especially since in the past few times I just missed out on the podium. So it is really special,” she said.
“I hoped the time would be a little better but I think there is a lot to learn from this race.”
There was also a first world title in the pool for Ireland, thanks to Daniel Wiffen’s win in the men’s 800m freestyle, in a time of 7:40.94.
In the men’s 200m butterfly, Tomoru Honda won the gold for Japan in the absence of reigning world champion Leon Marchand, with a time of 1 min 53.88sec.
In common with many leading performers, Frenchman Marchand is focusing his efforts on training for the Paris Olympics later this year.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Chinese sensation Pan Zhanle, who broke the 100m freestyle world record earlier in these championships, was the fastest qualifier for Thursday’s final of the event with a time of 47.73sec.
On Sunday, Pan stopped the clock at 46.80sec to shave 0.06sec off the previous record set by Romanian David Popovici at the European championships in Rome in August 2022.
Pan achieved the new mark when leading off the Chinese team during the 4x100m freestyle relay to set up teammates Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu to seal gold for China in 3:11.08.
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