FIONA DOYLE MISSED out on the 200m Olympic breaststroke semi-final today, ending her involvement in this year’s Games with a 25th place finish.
In what was always going to be the weaker of the Limerick woman’s two events at this meet, she led the way for three lengths of a slow opening heat, but was overtaken by Argentina’s Julia Sebastian on the turn and touched for home second in a time of 2:29.76.
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When seven more swimmers went faster in the second heat, the writing was on the wall for the 24-year-old and by the time Russia’s Yulia Efimova (the subject of Doyle and the swimming world’s ire in the 100m) went to blocks, the Calgary-based swimmer was already out of the semi-final picture.
Efimova finished third in final heat and was eighth fastest overall as Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen (2:22.72), Japan’s Rie Kaneto (2:22.86) and Australia’s Taylor McKeown (2:23.00) set the pace.
Lilly King, who won gold in the 100m breaststroke, just scraped into the semi-finals in 15th place.
