Just after 9am Hong Kong Time, local swimmer Siobhan Haughey swam in the Rio Olympics 200-metre freestyle semi-finals but sadly failed to take one of the eight spots in the finals.
Haughey, who’s only 18, had made Hongkongers proud by being the first to qualify for an Olympic swimming semi since 1952 and the very first to make the Olympic qualifying A standard, meaning her qualifying time would have put her in the top 16 at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Tying for 13th place in this morning’s semis, she finished with the time of 1:57.56 – slower than her performance in the preliminary heat and about 1.5 seconds short of qualifying for the finals.
She faced tough competition, being grouped with Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström (a multi-world-record-breaker), the US’ Katie Ledecky (12 broken world records), and Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, who set the current world record for the 200-metre freestyle at the 2009 World Championships. They came in first, second and third respectively in the semis.
Haughey is the second youngest out of the 16 semi-finalists, after China’s Ai Yanhan, who is only 14 years old. (Yes, she was born in 2002. Time to weep about your life’s accomplishments!)
The last time a Hong Kong swimmer made Olympic semi-finals was in 1952, the very first year the S.A.R. sent a team to the games.
It’s a disappointing result for Haughey, but we’re already readying our pompoms to cheer for her at the 2020 Summer Olympics!
