Siobhan Haughey puts her unblemished 200m record on the line on Sunday at the Fina short course World Championships in Melbourne, with more gold in her sights. There are not many familiar faces on the starting blocks, with the noticeable absence of two Tokyo Olympic 200m freestyle medallists – Ariarne Titmus of Australia and Penny Oleksiak of Canada – leaving Rebecca Smith of Canada, the silver medallist at last year’s championships in Abu Dhabi, and Chinese newcomer Li Bingjie as Haughey’s main threat. The 25-year-old Hongkonger began a new chapter at the same event in the United Arab Emirates, touching the wall in a world-record time of one minute, 50.31 seconds, earning the city its first swimming gold medal at the competition. Now, the double Olympic silver medallist, who already has two gold medals [100m and 200m freestyle] and one bronze [400m] from last year, as well as a silver in the 100m final on Thursday, is fired up to win a fifth medal on the final day of this year’s meet. “My main target for the meet is the 200m freestyle, that is my focus,” Haughey said. The Hongkonger had set her sights on success in Melbourne after missing the long course World Championships this summer because of an ankle injury. Undefeated in the World Cup series, Haughey has topped the 2022 rankings with a seasonal personal best of 1:51.13 set in Toronto in October. Haughey, who will race in heat five alongside Smith, is the top-seed, while Li, the 400m freestyle world-record holder who set a Chinese national record of 1:51.25 in March, races in heat four. However, Li’s appearance was put in doubt after her American coach Mark Schubert told a swimming website that the Chinese athlete tested positive for Covid-19 a few days ago. Wilson Madison of Australia, and Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands are considered swimmers to watch, with the former having already won four relay medals and the latter having won a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle. “Regardless of who is in the race, Siobhan will stick to her plan to swim her best,” Chen Jianhong, the head coach, said. “If everything goes as planned, she has a chance to break another world record.” On Saturday, Hong Kong’s swimmers continued to break city records, with the men’s 4x50m medley relay team – Hayden Kwan, Ng Yan-kin, Ng Cheuk-yin and Ian Ho Yentou – finishing third in the first heat in 1:34.74. So far eight Hong Kong records have fallen at the event in Melbourne, including three individual ones to: Ho in the 50m freestyle, Ng in the 100m backstroke and Adam Chillingworth in the 200m breaststroke.
