ISL: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey helps Energy Standard to season opening win in Budapest
- New International Swimming League season kicks off in Budapest, with pandemic condensing the season into five weeks
- Haughey sets Asian Record in 400m freestyle after leading relay team to a win in debut swim for 2019 champions
Hong Kong’s star swimmer Siobhan Haughey made a record breaking start to the second season of the International Swimming League in Budapest on Friday, with an Asian record and two national records.
Haughey made her debut for champions Energy Standard, swimming in the 400m freestyle and leading off the 100 freestyle relay in a meet that also featured the Cali Condors, New York Breakers and Los Angeles Current.
The 22-year-old finished second in the individual event, missing out on a win in 3:58.58, just behind Cali Condors swimmer Melanie Margalis’ time of 3:58.43.
Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus, two of the strongest swimmers over the distance, are both out of the season, giving Haughey a chance to impress.
Her relay team, “Energy Standard 2”, won in 3:28.51 with Hong Kong’s Tokyo 2020 hope swimming the first leg. That split of 51.19 saw Haughey set an Asian record, besting the 51.62 set by Japanese teen Rikako Ikee in 2018.
The Hongkonger also set two national records with her swims, smashing the 400m mark by seven seconds and improving her own benchmark in the relay split.
Swimmer Haughey given green light to compete at ISL in Europe amid pandemic spike
Haughey, who was MVP for former team DC Trident in last year’s ISL, was not the only new face on Energy Standard for this season.
Fellow newcomers Danas Rapsys, Felipe Lima and Benadetta Pilato also made solid debuts with Rapsys winning the men’s 400m freestyle and the other two posting second places in their races.
This year’s ISL is being packed into five weeks, all of which will take place in the Hungarian capital. The new format, which has been put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic, finishes with the Grand Final on November 22.
