Paris Olympics countdown: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey switches race to keep Mother’s Day free and smashes record
- Weeks before Olympics, she breaks 800 metres freestyle record in her very first crack at the distance, chosen to avoid diary clash
- ‘It’s Mother’s Day and … I want to go for dinner with my mum,’ Haughey says
Siobhan Haughey went the extra mile for her mum on Mother’s Day as she returned to the pool in Hong Kong, and ended up smashing a city record in a race she had never swum before.
The 200 metres freestyle world champion is weeks away from leading Hong Kong’s quest for Olympic glory in Paris, but she stepped up in distance at the local trials for the Games, with her mum in mind.
Haughey on Saturday entered her first 800m freestyle in an Olympic-length (“long-course”) 50m pool, and proceeded to swim it in eight minutes, 39.93 seconds. Her time at Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) in Fo Tan knocked almost two seconds off the previous city mark of 8:41.66, set by Stephanie Au Hoi-shun.
“This is actually my first time doing the 800 freestyle long course,” Haughey said afterwards. “So I didn’t know how to swim it and my training is very middle-distance-based.”
However, choosing the 800m over Sunday’s more familiar 400m freestyle had an important benefit away from swimming.
