UniversalSports.com Daily Coverage, including webcasts
ROME, Italy, July 31. REBECCA Soni of the United States took the women's 200 breast final out way too fast and suffered the consequences as she fell out of medal contention the final 25 meters. Serbia's Nadja Higl enjoyed the opportunity as she raced by Soni to win the world title at the FINA World Championships.
While Higl deserves top billing after a gold-medal time of 2:21.62, but Soni was the story of the race.
Soni went out incredibly fast and split the race 31.41, 1:05.73, 1:42.20, 2:22.15. She died in the final 25 metes as three swimmers swam right by.
"Sometimes, it's just not there," Soni said. "The first 100 felt really good, and I just started to cramp up and didn't have enough. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out."
World record holder Annamay Pierse could not reproduce her global standard of 2:20.12, and settled for silver with a 2:21.84, while Austria's Mirna Jukic took bronze in 2:21.97.
Soni (2:22.15), Japan's Rie Kaneto (2:23.03), Japan's Nanaka Tamura (2:23.12), Canada's Martha McCabe (2:23.36) and Sweden's Joline Hostman (2:23.62) comprised the rest of the championship heat.