Rebecca Soni wins 200m breaststroke gold for USA

Rebecca Soni has won the gold medal for the United States in the women's 200m breaststroke at the Olympics.

The American favourite faltered at the start and lost half a second on the leaders, but soon recovered and powered to a world record finish time of 2:19.59.

Soni faced stuff competition from Satomi Suzuki of Japan, who remained on her tail throughout, but had to settle for silver with a time of 2:20.72.

Russia's Iuliia Efimova also put in a strong swim to come in third and take the bronze with a 2:20.92, just enough to edge out Rikke Pedersen of Denmark.