Another glorious splash by Haughey

"Flying Fish" Siobhan Haughey made history for Hong Kong swimming by snatching the team's first gold medal ever in the Asian Games by winning the women's 200-meter freestyle.

With Ian Ho Yentou's silver in the men's 50m freestyle, Hong Kong bagged one gold, four silver and two bronze medals on the second day of the Hangzhou Asiad, with the other medals coming in rowing, wushu and fencing.

That puts Hong Kong's medal tally at three gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. The team is in fifth place among 45 nations in the standings, one gold behind fourth-placed Uzbekistan.

Tokyo Olympics medalist Haughey led from the start of the 200m freestyle final, with the gap between her and the rest only growing larger. She finished in one minute 54.12 seconds - 1.88 seconds ahead of second-placed Li Bingjie of China.

The 25-year-old Hongkonger also broke the Games record by over 2.5 seconds, but she missed out on her own Asian record, set in 2021, by 0.2 seconds.

After the race Haughey said: "The gold medal is still very meaningful to me as my parents were in the spectators' stand watching."

Hong Kong delegation head Kenneth Fok Kai-kong praised Haughey, saying: "Her performance from the heats to the final was impeccable."

Haughey will be competing this morning in the women's 100m freestyle heats.

Earlier, swimmer Ho finished the 50m freestyle race in 21.8 seconds, just 0.15 seconds behind South Korean Ji Yu Chan, who finished in a Games record 21.7 seconds.

Rowers Cheung Hoi-lam and Leung King-wan snatched silver in the women's pairs. Cheung said it was the result of training in the mainland.

Also in rowing, 29-year-old Chiu Hin-chun took bronze in singles scull.

Liu Xuxu, 34, took silver in wushu in the women's changquan after earning 9.756 marks in the final. She lost out by 0.03 marks to Macau's Li Yi, who won the neighboring SAR's first gold.

Hong Kong's third medal in wushu came not long after, with Samuei Hui Tak-yan taking silver in the men's all-around event.

Fencer Daphne Chan Nok-sze, 18, won bronze in women's foil in her Games debut after losing to Japan's Yuka Ueno 15-7 in the semi-finals.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said after returning from Hangzhou that he is thrilled by the results of Hong Kong athletes."I also believe Hong Kong athletes will continue to strive for excellence and fight for a good result in the next few days," he added.

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