Li Bingjie of China competes on her way to winning the women's 800m freestyle event during the Abu Dhabi Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 18, 2021. /CFP
Chinese swimmer Li Bingjie won the gold medal after clocking 8:02.90 in the women's 800-meter freestyle event during the Abu Dhabi Short Course World Championships on Saturday.
The phenomenal result produced by the 18-year-old Chinese swimmer not only renewed the championship record of 8:03.41 held by Mireia Belmonte of Spain, but also marked her first gold medal during the short course world championships.
Anastasiia Kirpichnikova of the Russian Swimming Federation and Simona Quadarella of Italy took the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Sarah Sjoestroem (L) of Sweden, Siobhan Bernadette Haughey (C) of China's HKSAR, and Abbey Weitzeil of the U.S. celebrate on the podium after their women's 100m freestyle event during the Abu Dhabi Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 18, 2021. /CFP
Also on Saturday Siobhan Bernadette Haughey, a 24-year-old swimmer from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), won the gold medal in the women's 100m freestyle event.
It was the second gold medal for Haughey in Abu Dhabi as she clinched the first gold in the freestyle 200m on December 16.
Haughey has become the first woman to complete the 100m and 200m freestyle double at a single world championships in either long course or short course.
"It's amazing to win as this is my first short course world championship and to have two gold medals so far is really good. I'm really happy with how everything is going so far," she said.
Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden and Abbey Weitzeil of the U.S. clinched silver and bronze respectively.
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Zhang Yufei wins China's first gold at FINA Short-course Worlds
Haughey wins second gold in Abu Dhabi Short Course World Championships