Watch: Siobhan Haughey Takes Down 200 Free World Cup Record For 3rd Time In 1:54.08

2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – BUDAPEST

• Friday, October 20th – Sunday, October 22nd
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Live Results

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey collected her 200 freestyle Triple Crown in style.

She earned her crown with a new World Cup record, blasting a 1:54.08. That not only makes her 3-for-3 in 200 free wins at the 2023 World Cup, but 3-for-3 in 200 free World Cup records.

https://twitter.com/SportNMedia/status/1715766228118106465

Courtesy: SportNMedia (via Twitter)

As you can see from the race video, the 25-year-old Haughey wasted no time asserting herself in the race. She blasted out under world record pace in 26.51. She was the only swimmer in the field to open her race under 27 seconds.

Haughey was actually under Mollie O’Callaghan‘s world record pace for the majority of the race. She flipped at the 100-meter mark in 55.50, .44 seconds than O’Callaghan was in the 2023 Worlds final when she set the mark. O’Callaghan has a back-half race strategy, and the world record pace began to creep up on Haughey during the third 50.

Still, Haughey flipped with 50 meters to go .11 seconds under world record pace. The line got away from her in the closing 50, but Haughey’s 1:54.08 takes down the World Cup record by almost a second, bettering the 1:55.08 she swam at the Athens stop. Until two weeks ago, the World Cup record stood at 1:55.41, set by Katinka Hosszu in 2015.

In addition to being a new World Cup record, it’s an excellent October swim for Haughey. She was just .16 seconds off her personal best and Asian record 1:53.92.

Split Comparison

You can see from the splits that in the last couple years–and even from Athens to Budapest–Haughey has been playing around with her race strategy. At the Tokyo Olympics, where she won her silver medal, it was the middle 100 that she really pushed her pace. That’s the part of the race where she led the Olympic final before tiring on the final 50, which gave Ariarne Titmus the room she needed to go by her and win gold.

But here in Budapest, even though Haughey opened her race faster than she did in Tokyo and almost matched her third 50 split, she still have enough left in the tank to come home in 29.45, .29 seconds faster than she did at the Olympics. Compared to her Athens race, she was on it from the start, out-splitting herself on every 50 except the last.

Haughey has a chance to earn a second Triple Crown tomorrow in the 100 freestyle. In Berlin, she blasted a 52.02 to become the #3 performer in history.