Her Hong Kong teammate Adam Chillingham finished third in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:12.72. Ippei Watanabe of Japan came first in 2:09.41. Watanabe finished first in the men’s classification.
The week left Haughey poised to challenge for the podium places at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July. She will be seeking her first ever long-course world medals, having missed last year’s edition in Budapest because of injury and finished fourth in the 200m freestyle in South Korea in 2019.
Hong Kong Sports Institute’s swimming head coach Chen Jianhong holds out hope of Haughey showing further improvement in Japan.
“We won’t set any medal target at the World Championships, but she is in really good form,” he said. “The aim of the Mare Nostrum was to raise her level through competitions, and she did better than expected.
“She will probably swim faster in Fukuoka.”
The coach voiced sympathy for youngster Cindy Cheung Sum-yuet, who fell ill after arriving in southern France for the meet’s first leg.
“She only joined the meet in the second leg, but was not in her best condition,” Chen said. “Her target will be the junior World Championships in August and the Asian Games in September – she won’t take part in Fukuoka.”
The 16-year-old is one of three swimmers from Hong Kong so far to achieve the “A” qualifying standard for the 2024 Paris Olympics, having done so in the 200m backstroke.
Cheung won the B final in that event in Monaco in 2:13.99 after finishing 16th overall in the previous leg in Barcelona.
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