Rikke Moller Pedersen broke the women's 200m breaststroke world record on Thursday at the world championships in Barcelona, dpa reported. The Dane, 24, who led from the start, finished her semi-final race in two minutes 19.11 seconds - 0.48 seconds faster than the old mark held by American Rebecca Soni. Russian Yuliya Efimova had the second-fastest time, with local favourite Marina Garcia following. It was the third world record at the 15th FINA world championships on the fourth day of competition. Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte was the first on Monday in the 100m breaststroke, followed by Katie Ledecky in the women's 1,500m freestyle final. Both Meilutyte and Ledecky are only 16-years-old. Earlier American Ryan Lochte won his first gold medal in the Palau Sant Jordi pool as he finished first in the 200m individual medley. Lochte, who on Sunday won silver with the American 4x100m freestyle relay, won in 1:54.98, beating Japan's Kosuke Hagino by 1.31 seconds. Brazilian Thiago Pereira was just 0.01 second behind for the bronze. In the women's 100m freestyle semi-finals, Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom topped the qualifiers into Friday's final in 52.87 seconds, followed by Malawi-born Cate Campbell, who lives and swims in Australia. Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Feemke Heemskerk from the Netherlands had the third and fourth-fastest time. -- SPA 20:04 LOCAL TIME 17:04 GMT تغريد
