Siobhan Haughey added yet another 100m freestyle gold to her collection at the final World Cup meet of the season, and then said she was looking forward to taking a well-earned rest.
The Hongkonger won the race for the third time in three weeks, securing second place in the overall rankings in the process.
Haughey, who also won three consecutive 200m free finals, clocked 52.24 seconds in Budapest on Sunday, giving her the fifth fastest time in the world this year.
After an intense period of competition, during which she also made history at the Asian Games in Hangzhou by winning the city’s first gold in the pool, the 25-year-old said she was “happy I am done with racing”.
“I am taking a week off and enjoy my time out of the pool and by the time I come back I will be recharged,” she said. “You get to see old friends and meet new friends and take some time and go sightseeing.”
Accumulating 166.4 points, Haughey managed to edge out China’s star swimmer Zhang Yufei, who trailed 0.2 behind, but remained out of reach of the 177.4 points wracked up by Australian Kaylee McKeown.
“I was able to swim some best times, I think I am in a better position than I thought I would be,” Haughey said. “It definitely gives me confidence and it sets me up really nicely for next year in some of my big races.
Overall second place, I knew it would be really close, and I wasn’t thinking too much about it, but my coaches were telling me, ‘If you do this …” and I said that’s too much, please just let me focus on my racing.”
Queensland-born McKeown, meanwhile, not only snagged the most points among the female swimmers, but also set a new meet record in the 200m backstroke, touching the wall in two minutes, 04.81 seconds.
The 22-year-old made history by claiming a “triple-triple” crown, after sweeping the competition in 50m, 100m and 200m back.
“It’s really nice to bring these results back home to Australia, it gives me extra motivation and some money from those last personal bests,” she said.
“We can’t always be thinking about the Olympics because it can be overwhelming, so I often wake up thinking about training.”
Despite being outscored by McKeown and Haughey in the overall ranking, the 25-year-old Zhang swam an impressive 56.13 in the 100 metres butterfly, which was just 0.01 shy of her gold medal-winning swim from the World Championships in July.
In the men’s event, China’s Qin Haiyang claimed the top spot with 175.4 points, after storming to a 200m breaststroke triple crown.
Qin’s time of 2:07.32 was the sixth fastest in the world this year and his third fastest personal finish, as the 24-year-old shaved 0.13 seconds off the World Cup record he set a fortnight ago in Berlin.
“I am really tired,” he said. “I had some regrets that I did not set a World Cup Record [in the 50m breast], so today I was motivated for a winning time that was also a World Cup Record. This gives me greater confidence. I am pleased with the time.”
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