Day 3 Prelim All-Star: Siobhan Haughey Moves Up 19 Spots In W 200 Free

2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Swimming: August 6-13
• Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
• Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
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After no one stood out yesterday morning to receive the honor of prelim all-star, there were a few worthy candidates today, none moreso than Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong. Haughey erased over a second and a half from her own national record to move up from the 28th seed coming in to 9th in the morning heats, easily qualifying for tonight’s semi-finals.

After qualifying she then scratched the 200 IM prelims, her only other event in Rio, in order to focus on the 200 free tonight.

The first-time Olympian clocked a time of 1:56.91 to eclipse her previous record of 1:58.27 done at the Quebec Cup in Montreal back in June. Haughey also becomes the 9th fastest Asian performer in history, behind eight different Chinese women.

Haughey just completed her first year of collegiate swimming in the NCAA with the University of Michigan Wolverines, earning All-American honors in the 200 free.

The top 24 seeded swimmers swim in the three circle seeded heats of all events with semi-finals (200m and below), and it is very rare to see anyone qualify for the semis outside of those heats. Haughey, along with two others this morning, accomplished that feat.

Swimming alongside Haughey in the third heat this morning was Canadian Katerine Savard, who had a very disappointing Canadian Olympic Trials failing to qualify in her signature event, the 100 butterfly. She managed to rebound with a 3rd place finish in the 200 freestyle, and after phenom Penny Oleksiak scratched that individual event to focus on her others, was given the opportunity to compete individually in Rio.

She took full advantage of that opportunity this morning, swimming over a full second under her best time to advance to the semi-finals in 13th place. The 2012 Olympic semi-finalist in the 100 fly also narrowly missed teammate Brittany Maclean‘s Canadian record of 1:56.94, clocking 1:57.15. Maclean also advanced to the semis in 16th place.

The other swimmer who advanced out of the non-circle seeded heats this morning was Kim Seoyeong of Korea. Kim improved her entry time by over a second to advance to the 200 IM semis in 10th place and improve her ranking by 19 spots, the same as Haughey. The main difference, however, is that Kim’s best time is actually the same time she went today, 2:11.75, achieved back in 2014.