Fina World Championships: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey narrowly misses podium in 200m freestyle
- The 21-year-old Hong Kong native edged out by Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem by two-tenths of a second for bronze
- Haughey is now considered one of the top swimmers in the 200m freestyle when Tokyo 2020 rolls around
- Controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang finishes sixth in men’s 800m freestyle, blames exhaustion
Siobhan Haughey missed out on a medal by two-tenths of a second, finishing fourth in the 200m freestyle at the 2019 Fina World Championships on Wednesday night in Gwangju, South Korea.
Italy’s Federica Pellegrini won the gold with a time of 1:54.22, Australia’s Ariarne Titmus came second and Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem came third with a time of 1:54.78. The top four finishers were all within one second of each other.
Haughey was the second top qualifier heading into the final behind Sjoestroem. She is also competing in the 100m freestyle, which starts at 9am on Thursday morning Hong Kong time.
Haughey took down her own Hong Kong record in the semi-final. One of the top swimmers in the world, American Katie Ledecky, withdrew from the 200m because of illness. She released a statement via the US team director noting it was purely on “medical grounds”. Ledecky holds the third fastest time ever in the 200m.
Raised in Happy Valley, Haughey recently graduated from the University of Michigan, with a degree in psychology, and was named one of the school’s Big Ten Medal of Honour swimmers. She originally didn’t take to swimming as a youngster but coaches soon found out she had a natural ability in the pool.
Haughey owns a number of Hong Kong and meet records and reached the semi-finals in the 200m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. She is training out of Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan’s campus is located.
‘You loser’: Sun Yang rants at British swimmer after podium snub
Meanwhile, there was no drama in the men’s pool – at least no more controversy involving China’s Sun Yang after the Chinese star finished way outside the medals in the men’s 800m freestyle final.
Sun blamed exhaustion for his fading sixth-place finish as he had to play second fiddle to Italy’s gold medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri. Norway’s Henrik Christiansen was second while David Aubry, of France, took bronze in a largely subdued final that didn’t have the post-race drama of Yang’s previous races.
Perhaps to the relief of organisers, Yang finishing outside the podium meant they didn’t have another night of controversy after British bronze medallist, Duncan Scott, refused to acknowledge him and wouldn’t stand next to Sun for photographs after the 200m freestyle final the previous night. That came days after Australia’s Mack Horton gave Sun the same treatment in the 400m freestyle final.
Sun just qualified for the 800m freestyle final by the skin of his teeth, taking the eighth and final spot and he was struggling from lane eight from the get-go. The Chinese multiple world and Olympic champion clocked 7:48.12 in the semi-final, and although he improved his time to 7:45.01 in the final it wasn’t good enough for a medal. His time was almost six seconds slower than Paltrinieri’s winning time of 7:39.27.
Mack Horton warned by FINA over Sun Yang podium protest
“I was very tired,” Yang told CCTV after the race. “I didn’t really think of achieving some kind of result in this race because I was so tired. Keeping up with the pace was so difficult,” he said.
“I kept going and did my best and I’m satisfied with my performance. I tried to close the gap at the end, but I couldn’t. Paltrinieri had a good race,” he added.
