Doha, Qatar, February 14, 2024: Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, China finally made it to the top of the podium at the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024 at the Aspire Dome on Wednesday, February 14.
The 26-year-old double silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics won the women’s 200m freestyle in 1 minute, 54.89 seconds.
Erika Fairweather of New Zealand finished second in 1:55.77, 0.88 seconds behind Haughey, and Australia’s Brianna Throssel won the bronze medal in 1:56.00, 01.11 seconds behind the new world champion.
Haughey said: “This really means a lot to me because in the past two world championships I was always fourth and in the Olympic Games I was second, so it’s nice to see the No. 1 next to my name.
“My coaches, my team, my teammates and even my parents are here, so it’s really great that everybody gets to see I am world champion. It’s really special.”
Haughey won silver medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics and two golds in the same events at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. All eyes are on Paris now.
“I can do a lot better. Paris is the main target and hopefully we can tweak and finetune a few things so that I can do even better,” she added.
On becoming Hong Kong, China's first world champion, she said: "I'm the first one, but hopefully there's more to come in the future. We have a very young team here and maybe this is a learning opportunity for them as well and in a few years’ time they could become world champions."
This was her second medal of Doha 2024, having won 100m breaststroke bronze the previous evening.
*Japan was celebrating shortly after when Tomoru Honda sealed his first world championship gold by winning a nail-biting men’s 200m butterfly.
Honda, 22, won in 1:53.88, holding off Italy’s Alberto Razzetti, who took silver in 1:54.65, just 0.77 seconds behind Honda. Martin Espernberger of Austria won the bronze in 1:55.16, 01.28 seconds behind Honda.