Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey and Ian Ho break own national 50m freestyle records at Olympic time trial

Haughey achieves Olympic qualifying time in three categories, while Ho misses out by just 0.8 seconds
The two 23-year-olds break their respective men’s and women’s national records set at the previous trials last month

Hong Kong Sports Institute

Andrew McNicol

Published: 6:05pm, 9 May 2021

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Hong Kong’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games swimming medal hopes were given a boost after stars Siobhan Haughey and Ian Ho Yentou broke the national 50m freestyle records at the Hong Kong Long Course Swimming Time Trial III on Sunday.

The trials tripled up as qualifiers for the Games, the Fina World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi, UAE in December and the Fina World Championships 2022 in Fukuoka, Japan.

The 23-year-old Haughey, who shattered her own 200m freestyle record at the previous Olympic trial in the Hong Kong Sports Institute last month, once again broke her own record 50m freestyle record clocking a time of 24.59 – achieving Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) A.

Haughey’s previous 50m freestyle best was the 24.83 finish at Time Trial II last month, meaning she has broken the Hong Kong record twice in three weeks. She had reached OQT qualifying times in the 100m and 200m freestyle in the trials in 2019.

Hong Kong women's 50m freestyle record holder Siobhan Haughey with referee Edward Cheng Ho-ming after breaking her own record at the time trials in the Hong Kong Sports Institute in May.

The 23-year-old Ho broke the men’s 50m free record – which he likewise set last month at 22.34 – with a much improved time of 22.09, narrowly missing out on the A category qualifying by 0.8 seconds but easing into the Olympic Selection Time (OST) B cut-off.

Both Haughey and Ho also easily met the 50m freestyle A qualifying threshold for the 2022 world championships.

Hong Kong men's 50m freestyle record holder Ian Ho Yentou breaks his own record at the Olympic time trials at the Hong Kong Sports Institute.

Haughey then remarkably broke her own women’s 400m freestyle record in the afternoon with a time of 4:10.87. This means she also qualified for the OST entry. She had set a previous national record of 4:11.90 at Time Trial II.

The Olympic time trials were organised for behind closed doors at the Sports Institute due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The annual Festival of Sports Long Course Time Trial in April was part of the local qualifying events for Hong Kong swimmers hoping to reach the Olympics benchmark.

Limited officials and no spectators or media were allowed into the premises as local swimming slowly returns after more than a year in isolation and bubbles.

Hong Kong men's 50m freestyle time trial competitors at the Hong Kong Sports Institute.

As of the last trials, Hong Kong had 10 Olympic qualified swimmers ahead of the Games, subject to governing body Fina’s approval.

Women’s:

50m freestyle: Haughey (A), Tam Hoi-lam (B)

100m freestyle: Haughey (A), Camille Cheng (B), Tam Hoi-lam (B)

200m freestyle: Haughey (A), Cheng (B)

400m freestyle: Haughey (B), Ho Nam-wai (B)

1500m freestyle: Ho Nam-wai (B)

100m backstroke: Stephanie Au Hoi-shun (A), Toto Wong Kwan-to (B)

100m breaststroke: Jamie Yeung Zhen Mei (B)

Men’s:

50m freestyle: Ho (B)

200m freestyle: Cheuk Ho-ming (B)

400m freestyle: Cheuk (B)

800m freestyle: Cheuk (B)

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Haughey shows her class with new mark