{"id":506989,"date":"2022-06-20T00:59:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=506989"},"modified":"2022-06-20T01:02:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:02:56","slug":"world-championships-yang-junxuan-tops-field-in-womens-200-freestyle-prelims-siobhan-haughey-out-with-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-yang-junxuan-tops-field-in-womens-200-freestyle-prelims-siobhan-haughey-out-with-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships: Yang Junxuan Tops Field in Women’s 200 Freestyle Prelims; Siobhan Haughey Out With Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships: Yang Junxuan Tops Field in Women’s 200 Freestyle Prelims; Siobhan Haughey Out With Injury<\/strong><\/p>\n

The preliminaries of the women’s 200-meter freestyle at the World Championships were a measured, with only two athletes cracking the 1:57 barrier in an event missing some big names. China’s Yang Junxuan<\/strong> led the way with a mark of 1:56.58, with Australian Madison Wilson<\/strong> following in a time of 1:56.85. Yang and Wilson were finalists in the 200 free at last summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, finishing fourth and eighth, respectively.<\/p>\n

The event is missing its gold and silver medalists from Tokyo in Aussie Ariarne Titmus<\/strong> and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey<\/strong>. While Titmus announced long ago that she was skipping the World Championships and would focus on the Commonwealth Games, Haughey’s absence is injury-related. The former University of Michigan star injured her ankle ahead of action in Budapest and has not progressed enough to compete. American Katie Ledecky<\/strong> is also missing, having decided to not tackle the 200 free-1500 free double she has handled in previous years.<\/p>\n

Canadian Penny Oleksiak<\/strong> and American Leah Smith<\/strong> tied for the third-fastest time of prelims, as each touched the wall in 1:57.22. They were followed by Australian teen Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong> (1:57.28), who was sub-1:55 at the Australian Trials. Oleksiak was the bronze medalist at the Olympics while Smith won the bronze medal earlier in the meet in the 400 freestyle, marking a comeback from a campaign in which she failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n

Great Britain’s Freya Anderson<\/strong> finished sixth in the morning heats in 1:57.53 while United States teenager Claire Weinstein<\/strong> snuck into the semifinals with the 15th-best time, going 1:58.76. Weinstein was right behind Canadian Taylor Ruck<\/strong>, with the Stanford University star clocking 1:58.41.<\/p>\n