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Saturday, Feb 22, 2025
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Swim queen finishes on high
Hong Kong's star swimmer Siobhan Haughey added the 100 meters freestyle gold to her Fina World Cup haul yesterday, concluding the Toronto meet with two golds and one bronze medal.
The double Olympic silver medalist finished first in the women's 100m freestyle yesterday morning, rewarding herself with the best 25th birthday present.
She first won the bronze in the 400m freestyle on Saturday and then beat seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky in the 200m freestyle on Sunday, which is Haughey's specialty, to win gold, showing she has the stuff to be a world-class swimmer.
In the 100m freestyle final yesterday, against strong rivals, Haughey was not in the top five when reacting to the starting horn in the race. Even though she was only in third place in the first 25 meters, she made it to the front after the second turn and then led all the way to the end.
She touched the wall in 51.33 seconds to win the second gold medal in the Toronto meet, only 0.54 seconds off her best, but still 0.34 seconds ahead of France's Beryl Gastaldello, while Poland's Katarzyna Wasick took third place with 51.69 seconds.
Speaking yesterday, Haughey said: "I'm happy with my last race at 24 years old, but I don't have time or plans to celebrate because we are leaving for Indianapolis for the next leg."
Indianapolis is where the final three-day leg of the Fina Swimming World Cup 2022 will be staged, starting from Thursday.
Three Hong Kong swimmers who are studying in the United States, Ian Ho Yen-tou, Hayden Kwan Pang and Ng Cheuk-yin, will join the team in Indianapolis.
Together with the first leg in Berlin last week, Haughey has competed in six races, only missing out on the gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle in Toronto.
She first won three golds in Berlin and was crowned the women's overall champion, and then won two golds and a bronze in Toronto, accumulating five golds.
She has garnered a total of 112.9 points and is now ranked second in this year's World Cup women rankings, just 2.7 points behind American Beata Nelson.
The top 20 male and female swimmers at each leg of the World Cup can share US$224,000 in prize money, with the overall male and female champions receiving US$12,000, the overall runner-up also receiving US$10,000, and the one in third place receiving US$8,000.
Another Hong Kong swimmer, 16-year-old Adam Mak Sai-ting, now holds the Hong Kong record in the men's 200m breaststroke.
He clocked 2:07.59 to place seventh in the final, 0.2 seconds faster than the Hong Kong record set by his teammate Adam Chillingworth in the heat, who finished eighth on 2:07.93 in the final.
American Nic Fink finished in 2:03.78 and won the gold medal.
She first won the bronze in the 400m freestyle on Saturday and then beat seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky in the 200m freestyle on Sunday, which is Haughey's specialty, to win gold, showing she has the stuff to be a world-class swimmer.
In the 100m freestyle final yesterday, against strong rivals, Haughey was not in the top five when reacting to the starting horn in the race. Even though she was only in third place in the first 25 meters, she made it to the front after the second turn and then led all the way to the end.
She touched the wall in 51.33 seconds to win the second gold medal in the Toronto meet, only 0.54 seconds off her best, but still 0.34 seconds ahead of France's Beryl Gastaldello, while Poland's Katarzyna Wasick took third place with 51.69 seconds.
Speaking yesterday, Haughey said: "I'm happy with my last race at 24 years old, but I don't have time or plans to celebrate because we are leaving for Indianapolis for the next leg."
Indianapolis is where the final three-day leg of the Fina Swimming World Cup 2022 will be staged, starting from Thursday.
Three Hong Kong swimmers who are studying in the United States, Ian Ho Yen-tou, Hayden Kwan Pang and Ng Cheuk-yin, will join the team in Indianapolis.
Together with the first leg in Berlin last week, Haughey has competed in six races, only missing out on the gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle in Toronto.
She first won three golds in Berlin and was crowned the women's overall champion, and then won two golds and a bronze in Toronto, accumulating five golds.
She has garnered a total of 112.9 points and is now ranked second in this year's World Cup women rankings, just 2.7 points behind American Beata Nelson.
The top 20 male and female swimmers at each leg of the World Cup can share US$224,000 in prize money, with the overall male and female champions receiving US$12,000, the overall runner-up also receiving US$10,000, and the one in third place receiving US$8,000.
Another Hong Kong swimmer, 16-year-old Adam Mak Sai-ting, now holds the Hong Kong record in the men's 200m breaststroke.
He clocked 2:07.59 to place seventh in the final, 0.2 seconds faster than the Hong Kong record set by his teammate Adam Chillingworth in the heat, who finished eighth on 2:07.93 in the final.
American Nic Fink finished in 2:03.78 and won the gold medal.
