Yulia Efimova finished a distant third in the Russian Olympic Trials 200m breaststroke and, barring an exception, will not swim her best event at the Olympics, missing a second showdown with American Lilly King in Tokyo.
Efimova finished second in the 100m breast earlier at Russia’s trials and is in line to swim that event in Tokyo.
Efimova, the two-time reigning world champion and second-fastest woman in history in the 200m breast, clocked 2:24.16 in that final on Thursday. She was 2.53 seconds behind winner Yevgeniya Chikunova and 1.4 seconds behind runner-up Mariya Temnikova.