‘It was four swimmers chasing three medals’: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey reflects on narrow miss at world championships
- The 21-year-old Hong Kong native was just shy of a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle by two-tenths of a second
- Haughey will now get set for the ISL and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Two-tenths of a second doesn’t sound like a lot, but in the world of competitive swimming every millisecond counts.
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey finished fourth in her marquee event, the 200 metre freestyle, at the Fina world championships, which wrapped up on Sunday in Gwangju, South Korea. Haughey clocked one minute, 54.98 seconds, narrowly missing out on the bronze medal. She had already qualified in the event for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo earlier this year.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem finished third in 1:54.78, while Federica Pellegrini won (1:54.22) and Australia’s Ariarne Titmus came second (1:54.66).
“I knew the 200 free would be a very tough race,” said the 21-year-old Haughey. “I was kind of expecting to make the finals, and I did, and going into the finals I knew it was four swimmers chasing three medals.”
The top four swimmers all finished within one second of each other and Haughey set a personal best by more than a second.