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World Championships: Yang Junxuan Tops Field in Women’s 200 Freestyle Prelims; Siobhan Haughey Out With Injury
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 led the way with a mark of 1:56.58, with Australian Madison Wilson 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.
The event is missing its gold and silver medalists from Tokyo in Aussie Ariarne Titmus and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey. 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 is also missing, having decided to not tackle the 200 free-1500 free double she has handled in previous years.
Canadian Penny Oleksiak and American Leah Smith 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 (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.
Great Britain’s Freya Anderson finished sixth in the morning heats in 1:57.53 while United States teenager Claire Weinstein snuck into the semifinals with the 15th-best time, going 1:58.76. Weinstein was right behind Canadian Taylor Ruck, with the Stanford University star clocking 1:58.41.
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