Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey defeats Olympic champion to make history at prestigious Mare Nostrum Series in Monaco

Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey became the city’s first gold medallist at the illustrious Mare Nostrum Series in Monaco on Saturday.

The 21-year-old, who will represent Hong Kong at the Tokyo Olympics next year, was among the winners on day one of the three-meet series, which also featured three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.

Haughey, who concluded her collegiate career with Michigan in the US earlier this year, put in a tremendous showing as she claimed the 200m freestyle event in one minute, 56.05 seconds, just a tenth of a second slower than the career-best performance she registered at the world championships in Budapest two years ago.

It was also the fifth-fastest time in the world this year, according to swimmingworldmagazine.com.

Hosszu finished second in 1:57.72.

The performance will no doubt provide a huge boost for Haughey as she steps up her preparations for the 2019 world championships, which will be held in Gwangju, South Korea from July 12.

In April, Haughey returned to Hong Kong and achieved the 2020 Olympic qualification standard, so far the only Hong Kong swimmer to do so.

The former world junior championships gold medallist, who has opted to remain in the US as she prepares for the Tokyo Games, later shattered her own Hong Kong record when she finished third in the 50m free in a time of 25.21 behind Russia’s Maria Kameneva (24.41), and France’s Beryl Gastaldello (25.12) to qualify for today’s final.

Another Hong Kong swimmer, Camille Cheung Lily-mei reached the event’s B final where she finished third with a time of 2:01.66 while another Hong Kong swimmer, Ho Nam-wai came eighth in 2:04.63.

Hong Kong head coach Chen Jianhong paid tribute to Haughey saying she set a good example to fellow Hong Kong team members who are in a training camp in Europe.

There was another strong performance from a Hong Kong swimmer in the Mediterranean series as Stephanie Au Hoi-shun smashed her own Hong Kong record in the women’s 50m backstroke.

Au, who is trying to reach the 100m backstroke qualifying standard for the Tokyo Games, topped the heats with a time of 27.98, far improving on her previous best 28.33.

In the men’s 200m butterfly, Nicholas Lim just missed the podium with a fourth place but his time of 2:00.43 was very close to his own Hong Kong record 2:00.98 he set in April.

Another Hong Kong swimmer Chan Kin-lok came third in the B final of the women’s 100m butterfly with a time of 1:00.51.