Siobhan Haughey was unable to collect her third Olympic spot of the Pro Swim Series in Florida as she finished outside the qualifying time in the 50 metres freestyle.

With the qualification period having begun on March 1, Haughey had already achieved the “A” standard – guaranteeing a place at the 2024 Paris Games – in the 200m and 400m freestyle at this meet. But it was not to be in the 50m, which is not one of her regular disciplines.

Also in action on Saturday’s final day in Fort Lauderdale was her fellow Hongkonger Ian Ho Yentao, who met the “B” Olympic standard in the men’s 50m freestyle, effectively putting him on the standby list for Paris.

Haughey, whose personal best of 24.59 seconds is inside the Olympic cut of 24.70, finished second in her heat to progress third fastest with a time of 24.88. She improved by 0.03 in the final but remained 0.15 short of the time needed as she finished third.

American Abbey Weitzeil, winner of the 50m butterfly and 100m free, touched the wall in 24.40, ahead of Polish veteran Katarzyna Wasick in 24.68. Both attained the A-cut time.

Hong Kong head coach Chen Jianhong expressed satisfaction with Haughey’s overall performance and predicted there was “more to come” in next month’s time trial at the Hong Kong Sports Institute.

“Given that this meet is primarily a warm-up for Siobhan, what she has done is really good,” Chen said. “We could not ask for more – a good start to the season.”

The 25-year-old finished this second leg of the Pro Swim Series with a second place in the 400m free and third places in the 50m free, 50m breaststroke and her favourite 200m free – plus the all-important two Olympic berths as she aims to follow up her two silver medals in Tokyo in 2021.

Ho made a splash in his 50m freestyle when he won his heat to reach the final second fastest in 22.05 – 0.02 seconds inside B standard time but short of the A time of 21.96. He ran out of gas in the final, clocking 22.30 to finish sixth.

“To reach the 50m Olympic A time is very difficult because there is no time to think or make adjustments – the swimmer has to be very precise in every aspect,” Chen said of the Games’ shortest distance. “I have confidence in Ian, he just needs more races to perfect his skill. He can do it.”

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Ho did achieve the A qualifying time for the Tokyo Games, where he went out in the heats.

A mechanical engineering doctoral student at Virginia Tech in the United States, he will return to Hong Kong for the time trial next month, when Chen expects some A and B-standard finishes.

A total of 852 swimming slots in Paris (compared with 878 in Tokyo) will be filled by those with A times, with a maximum of two swimmers per country or territory in each race. Where nations have more than two, their surplus places will go to B-standard swimmers.

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