Katinka Hosszu Breaks 200 IM Olympic Record in Prelims

by Cathleen Pruden

08 August 2016, 10:25am

In this morning’s 200 IM prelims world record holder Katinka Hosszu of Hungary set herself up for another gold medal, posting the Olympic record with a 2:07.45 to lead prelims.

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor of Great Britain finished third at the World Championships. This morning she was impressive, shooting forward to a 2:08.44, her best time this year and good for second overall.

American Melanie Margalis worked to stay near O’Connor and touched in 2:09.62. Her teammate Maya DiRado had a fabulous backstroke leg. The 400 IM silver medalist finished in 2:10.24 for the fourth spot tonight.

Japan’s Miho Teramura swam a 2:10.34 for fifth. Australia’s Alicia Coutts tried to stick with DiRado over the back half and finished sixth overall with a 2:10.52.

Former Olympic record holder Ye Shiwen of China recovered from a poor 400 IM to qualify seventh in 2:10.56. Canada’s Sydney Pickrem (2:11.06), and Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos (2:11.69) followed.

Korea’ Seoyeong Kim was fifth at the Asian Games. In 2:11.75 she will head to semifinals in tenth. Runa Imai of Japan (2:11.78), Hannah Miley of Great Britain (2:11.84), Alexandra Wenk of Germany (2:12.46) and Canad’s Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson were 11th through 14th.

Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain (2:12.58) and Russia’s Viktoriia Andreeva (2:13.01) secured the final two spots in semifinals.