Swimming World Championships: Siobhan Haughey cruises into short course 100m freestyle final
- Hongkonger comes home first in her heat, in one of the two events in which she won gold last year
- Haughey’s time makes her the fastest qualifier for the semi-finals, where she finishes second fastest
Siobhan Haughey will head into her first final of swimming’s short-course World Championships with a chance of a repeating last year’s gold medal after she qualified second-fastest in the 100 metres freestyle on Wednesday.
The Hongkonger finished second in her semi-final in 51.69 seconds in Melbourne, as she bids to retain her crown in Thursday’s final. Emma McKeon of Australia, the Tokyo Olympic gold medallist who pipped Haughey in the event, finished ahead of her in 51.28.
Hong Kong head swimming coach Chen Jianhong is expecting an “epic final” between the two.
“Siobhan still has plenty in her tank. The final will be a different level of competition,” Chen said. “I think the pressure will be on Emma because she is the host swimmer. Siobhan can swim her best without any burden because we won’t put any on her.”
Earlier, in her heat, she came home first in 52.04 seconds, and was the fastest swimmer overall in the first round as she began her defence of the title she won a year ago in Abu Dhabi – when she also took 200m freestyle gold in a world-record time.
The 25-year-old swam in heat eight at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, finishing the first 25m length in third place before leading from the 50m mark onwards to touch the wall first by a comfortable margin.
