Siobhan Haughey of China's Hong Kong broke the women's 200m freestyle world record as the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) opened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday.

Haughey, 24, claimed her first world title in the short-course World Championships with one minute and 50.31 seconds, slicing 0.12 seconds off of Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom's previous record set in 2017.

"I knew I was close to the world record, I got close recently a few times and everyone around me kept telling me I could do it," Haughey said.

"I just tried not to think about that as all I wanted to do is really focus on my race plan; how I was going to swim well," added the Olympic silver medalist.

Canada's Rebecca Smith finished second, 1.93 seconds behind Haughey, while Paige Madden from the United States took the bronze medal in 1:53.01.

In the men's 200m individual medley final, Japan's Daiya Seto won the title in 1:51.15.

China's defending champion Wang Shun finished fifth in 1:53.41. The top four swimmers all touched the wall within 1:52.00.

Also on Thursday, Alberto Razzetti of Italy won the men's 200m butterfly gold medal, and took bronze in the 200m individual medley.