The recent University of Michigan graduate is on good form for next month's Fina World Championships
Siobhan (right) has hit a hat-trick of golds so far in the Mare Nostrum events.St Paul’s Secondary School alumna Siobhan Haughey is proving her decision to go pro is a good one. The swimmer won a third gold medal on the Mare Nostrum Tour in France on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old had struck gold twice at the weekend, one in 200m freestyle,and the other in 100m freestyle. Her win in Canet-en-Roussillon was also for 200m freestyle, with a time of 1:56.91
Haughey hit 1:56.05 in Monaco, a time that checked in as the Michigan graduate’s second fastest ever and made her the fifth fastest swimmer in the event this year.
Triple Olympic gold medallist Hosszu, a medley and backstroke specialist, finished with the silver in Monaco, but was shut out of the medals in Canet, finishing fourth in 1:58.64.
In the shorter 50m freestyle, in which Haughey set a new Hong Kong record in Monaco, she came third in Canet with another under 25-second performance.
In Monaco, Haughey clinched a record in 24.85, becoming the first-ever woman from Hong Kong to break the 25-second barrier. The former Michigan Wolverine wasn’t too far away in Canet, hitting 24.92.
Head coach Chen Jian-hong paid tribute to the performance of the two medallists, especially Haughey for collecting a number of gold medals in the tour.
“The tour is part of our warm-up for the World Championships and some of them performed really well, especially Haughey,” said Chen.
“She definitely has the quality to reach the finals in Gwangju next month as you can tell from her results. But we won’t set any target for her in the final, hopefully she can have a good race without any pressure. Also we will be targeting the women’s relays in the World Championships to reach the Olympic A qualifying standard.”
Haughey will skip the final stop of the series in Barcelona next week to return to the US before heading to the Fina World Championships in South Korea from July 12-28.