HAUGHEY SHINES WITH HAT-TRICK ‘HARDWARE’
Hong Kong star savours ‘a nice collection’ of silver in 100m freestyle to go with earlier 200m gold and breaststroke bronze at world championships
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey said it was “great to go home with some hardware” after completing a hat-trick of medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
The 26-year-old took silver in the 100 metres freestyle in the early hours yesterday, Hong Kong time, leading at halfway before falling agonisingly short of a second gold of the competition.
It was the second year in a row Haughey was kept off the top of the podium in the 100m free. Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan denied her last time, and here it was Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands, requiring the eighth fastest time in history to do so.
Haughey’s week in Qatar has nonetheless yielded a gold, a silver and a bronze.
“I didn’t think I was going for all three colours, but I guess now I have them and it’s a nice collection,” Haughey said afterwards. “It’s definitely great to go home with some hardware.”
The latest piece came two days after her historic first global gold in an Olympic-standard 50m pool with a dominant victory in the 200m freestyle, having also bagged bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Haughey again led from the front at the Aspire Dome in what has become her trademark style. She turned first, with Steenbergen fourth, before being overhauled by the late surge of her rival, who won in 52.26 seconds with Haughey 0.3 seconds behind. Shayna Jack of Australia came third, clocking 52.83.
“My strength is typically in the first half of the race,” Haughey said. “I died a little at the end, but that’s OK. That’s how I swim the 100.”
Steenbergen said: “The back half is my speciality. Today I did not really feel the pressure. I was just trying to have fun and I tried to enjoy the race. When I do that, I can swim really fast.”
She improved on her showing at last year’s worlds in Fukuoka, when third behind Haughey, to emerge as a contender for this year’s Paris Olympics.
Steenbergen emulated Haughey by becoming an individual long-course world champion for the first time, although it was her second gold of the week after helping the Netherlands to victory in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
O’Callaghan, not competing at the worlds, will inevitably contend for the Paris podium, too, along with Haughey.
Asked whether she could learn from Doha as she prepares for those Games, the Hongkonger replied: “We have a few more months, so hopefully we can fine-tune things and be ready.”
China won two more golds, one coming in the men’s 200m breaststroke courtesy of 18-yearold Dong Zhihao. Dong was sixth as he entered the closing 50m, with Caspar Corbeau on course for another Dutch triumph until the final 15m, when he ran out of puff to finish 0.3 seconds behind Dong’s time of two minutes, 7.94 seconds, a personal best.
“You might as well fly and die and put it all on the line,” Corbeau said. “Those last 20 metres were real bad.”
It was a similar story in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, in which China trailed the United States by a distance until 16-yearold Zhang Zhanshuo’s anchor leg snatched victory. That took China to six swimming golds, tied with the US, with the Chinese comfortably top of the overall aquatics medal table after dominating the diving and artistic swimming.
Haughey’s fellow Olympic qualifiers Ian Ho Yentou and Cindy Cheung Sum-yuet bowed out in their semi-finals. Ho came sixth in his 50m freestyle race to place 11th overall, after a personal best in his heat, and Cheung was eighth in a 200m backstroke semi.
Ho, Lau Shiu-yue, Camille Cheng Lily-mei and Tam Hoi-lam qualified eighth-fastest for the overnight final of the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, but Tam went out in the heats of the women’s 50m freestyle, as did Lau in the men’s 50m backstroke.
My strength is in the first half of the race. I died a little at the end, but that’s how I swim the 100
SIOBHAN HAUGHEY