Hong Kong’s flying fish Siobhan Haughey capped a brilliant 15th National Games campaign on Monday evening by racing back-to-back finals and snatching bronze in both the women’s 50-meter breaststroke and 50-meter freestyle, bringing her personal haul to two golds and two bronzes.
In the 50m breaststroke, Haughey clocked 30.71 seconds to finish third behind Asian record holder Tang Qianting of Shanghai, who stormed to gold in 30.00 seconds flat, and Shanxi’s Yang Chang, who took silver just 0.11 seconds later.
Minutes later in the 50m freestyle, Haughey touched in 24.84 seconds to share bronze with Zhejiang’s Lyu Yue.
Zhejiang teammate Wu Qingfeng claimed gold in 24.21 seconds, edging Jiangxi’s Cheng Yujie by a mere 0.02 seconds, while Olympic star Zhang Yufei of Jiangsu finished fifth in 25.56 seconds.
The double bronze capped a remarkable meet for Haughey, who earlier dominated the 100m and 200m freestyle for gold.
Haughey’s two bronze medals from Monday night’s 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle finals will each earn her HK$150,000 in cash incentives under the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme.
The long-running Jockey Club programme, administered through the Hong Kong Sports Institute, rewards Hong Kong athletes who medal at the National Games with individual prizes of HK$750,000 for gold, HK$375,000 for silver, and HK$150,000 for bronze. Team event medals carry double the amount: HK$1.5 million, HK$750,000, and HK$300,000, respectively.
The Jockey Club has committed more than HK$500 million to support both the able-bodied National Games and the National Games for Athletes with Disabilities, serving as the sole official partner for the Hong Kong zone across both Guangdong and Hong Kong competition venues.
