Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey swam the world’s second-fastest 200 metres freestyle time this yr in Texas on Saturday to underline her standing among the many favourites for Olympic gold in Paris.
Haughey stormed to victory on the Professional Swim Sequence in San Antonio, main the race all through to clock one minute, 54.52 seconds and ending forward of Katie Ledecky of the US, the Olympic champion over the gap in Rio in 2016.
Her successful time was 0.37 seconds sooner than her gold medal-winning time of 1:54.89 on the World Championships in Qatar in February, and put her behind solely Summer season McIntosh of Canada in 2024. McIntosh clocked 1:54.21 this week on the Canadian Open.
Haughey received Olympic silver in Tokyo in 2021 in each the 200m and 100m freestyle, and seemed in kind within the latter, too, on Friday as she received in 52.74 seconds, nearly 1 / 4 of a second sooner than second-placed Kate Douglass of the US.
Hong Kong’s Camille Cheng Lily-mei additionally swam within the 100m and 200m metres freestyle however was unable to make the finals of both.
Ian Ho Yentou, who, like Haughey, has certified for Paris, additionally failed to succeed in the ultimate within the 100m butterfly.
Haughey, Cheng and Ho all have 50m freestyle heats nonetheless to return in Texas.
Again in Hong Kong, one other Olympic qualifier was within the pool, as rising star Cindy Cheung Sum-yuet received the 50m and 200m backstroke on the Nationwide Lengthy Course Swimming Trial at Hong Kong Sports activities Institute.
Adam Mak Sai-ting was unable to safe a spot on the Olympics within the 200m breaststroke, falling 0.51 seconds wanting his Hong Kong document of two minutes, 11.2 seconds.
Mak and Cheung will chase Olympic qualification once more on Sunday within the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke respectively.
The shock of the day got here from Li Sum-yiu, within the ladies’s 50m freestyle. The 14-year-old achieved the B qualifying time for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, solely to complete second behind common Hong Kong consultant Tam Hoi-lam.
A crew might ship just one swimmer from the B bracket.
