Mighty Qin Lights Up Asian Games Pool As Haughey Claims 200m Free Gold

Ijaz Ahmad Published September 25, 2023 | 10:30 PM

World champion Qin Haiyang surged to the world's second fastest time this year and the Asian Games 100m breaststroke title Monday while star freestyler Siobhan Haughey clinched Hong Kong's first-ever swimming gold medal

Hangzhou, China, (UrduPoint/APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Sept 25th, 2023) :World champion Qin Haiyang surged to the world's second fastest time this year and the Asian Games 100m breaststroke title Monday while star freestyler Siobhan Haughey clinched Hong Kong's first-ever swimming gold medal.
China won four of the seven titles on offer in the Hangzhou pool, but Haughey and South Korea's Ji Yu-chan denied them a clean sweep, taking out the women's 200m freestyle and men's 50m freestyle crowns respectively.
South Korea also upset China in the men's 4x200m freestyle, but needed a new Asian record to do so.
Chinese superstar Qin was the overwhelming favourite after a stunning swim to win the world championship this year in Fukuoka in the absence of British great Adam Peaty.
He went on to complete an unprecedented sweep of the breaststroke races, an achievement he is aiming to match at his home Asiad as he builds towards next year's Paris Olympics.

He first cracked the Asian Games record in the heats and bettered it again in the final to touch in 57.76sec -- the second quickest of 2023 after his world championship-winning exploits.
Qin finished a gaping 1.33sec ahead of teammate Yan Zibei with South Korea's Choi Dong-yeol bagging bronze.
"I'm quite pleased with the result today.

My form is quite similar to what it was at the world championships, and I'm trying out some new race strategies," he said.
"I'm more aggressive in the first half of my swims, going faster."
It ensured yet another gold medal for the dominant hosts, whose four on day two added to the seven-from-seven they won on Sunday.
Qin had already claimed a silver after finishing second to storming Olympic champion Wang Shun in the 200m medley on the opening night of action.