Rie Kaneto of Japan won gold in the 200m breaststroke final Thursday night with her time of 2:20.30. Kaneto, 27, broke the U.S. stranglehold on this event: Team USA’s Amanda Beard won the event in Athens in 2004, and Rebecca Soni took back-to-back Olympic crowns in 2008 and 2012, but no Americans qualified for the final after Lilly King and Molly Hannis raced in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Russia’s Yulia Efimova, who won a bronze in 2012, improved to a silver medal with her time of 2:21.97, while China’s Shi Jinglin took the silver in 2:22.28