Haughey powers through to women's 100m freestyle final

Siobhan Haughey qualified in third place and entered the finals of the women's 100-meter freestyle tonight at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Chasing her first win at the championships, Haughey was put in Lane 4 at Heat 7 of the 100m freestyle.

Also in the heat, in Lane 6, was Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee who won gold six times at the Asian Games in Palembang, Jakarta, after overcoming leukemia.

Haughey's time was 0.69 seconds, coming fourth among the nine contestants, but rose to first halfway through the swim with a 50m time of 25.29 seconds. Having fallen short of a medal in the women's 200m freestyle competition in the Championships on Wednesday night proved even fiercer for Haughey than what she had faced in the Tokyo Olympics, but her medal hopes were not over yet.

She maintained her lead over the last 50 meters and ended up with a time of 53.15 seconds, coming first in Heat 7.

With this result she entered the top 16 semifinals and placed first among all 80 swimmers.

Swimming in Lane 4 of one of the two semifinals last night, Haughey tied for third coming out of the gates with a time of 0.68 seconds.

She finished second out of the eight swimmers in her semifinal with a time of 52.90 seconds, a mere 0.04 seconds behind Australian 19-year-old Mollie O'Callaghan in Lane 6.

Haughey placed third across both semifinals and among all 16 swimmers. She was behind O'Callaghan and Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen, who finished 0.04 seconds ahead of O'Callaghan in second.

Haughey qualified for the final of the Women's 100m Freestyle along with the top eight swimmers across both semifinals, including Chinese swimmer Yang Jun-xuan who qualified at eighth with a time of 53.67 in the other semifinal.

In the other semis were Chinese swimmer Cheng Yu-jie and Japan's Ikee, who both missed the cut after finishing 10th with a time of 53.92 seconds and 15th with a time of 54.86 seconds.

The Women's 100m Freestyle final comes tonight at 7pm.