World Aquatics Championships: Siobhan Haughey 4th in 200m freestyle as Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan smashes 14-year world record
- O’Callaghan beats her compatriot Ariarne Titmus to the title, with Canada’s Summer McIntosh third
- Haughey’s time is her best of the season and close to her personal best, but O’Callaghan finally takes Federica Pellegrini’s record that had stood since 2009
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey finished agonisingly outside the medals as Mollie O’Callaghan of Australia erased the oldest world record in the books to win the 200 metres freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships.
Haughey had to settle for fourth place on Wednesday evening in Fukuoka, Japan, after O’Callaghan, her compatriot Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh of Canada – who had all qualified faster than her – held their ominous form.
O’Callaghan’s winning time of one minute and 52.85 seconds sliced 0.13 seconds off the previous mark of Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, which had stood for 14 years. It was enough to consign Titmus, the fastest qualifier and reigning Olympic champion, to silver in 1:53.01, with McIntosh claiming the bronze in 1:53.65.
But it took a late surge by 19-year-old O’Callaghan to reel in Titmus, who was in front for most of the race and had smashed a world record of her own on Sunday in storming to the 400m freestyle gold.
The 1:53.96 recorded by Haughey was comfortably her quickest of the season and only four hundredths of a second outside her personal best, produced in the final at the Tokyo Olympics, when she was second only to Titmus.
