Olympics Rio 2016: Lilly King wins women's 100m breaststroke ahead of Russia's Yulia Efimova
ByReuters
Updated 09/08/2016 at 02:51 GMT
Lilly King of the United States won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 100 metres breaststroke on Monday, denying Russia's Yulia Efimova who was greeted with resounding boos from the Rio de Janeiro crowd.
Lilly King (USA) of USA reacts after winning the gold medal
Image credit: Reuters
Katie Meili of the United States took the bronze, with London 2012 champion Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania fading in the second length to finish seventh.
There were loud jeers before the start of the race for Efimova, who has twice been suspended for doping offences.
The 24-year-old world champion won a legal challenge last week to get herself reinstated to the Olympics, having previously been excluded because of her doping record.
She was one of several Russians who successfully argued that having served their suspensions, they should not be punished again for the same offence by being barred from Rio.
King swam a strong first 50 metres and led at the turn, with Efimova well back in fourth place.
The Russian surged forward in the second half of the race and appeared to be catching her rival, but King finished powerfully in an Olympic record time of one minute 4.93 seconds, with Efimova 0.57 seconds behind.
Before leaving the poolside, the American patted the Russian on the back.
The margin was more comfortable than in the heats and semi-finals, where King had beaten her rival by 0.01 and 0.02 seconds respectively. Efimova was also jeered at both those swims.
Revelations of state-sponsored Russian doping overshadowed the build-up to the Olympics and led to more than 100 competitors being excluded, including the country's entire athletics and weightlifting teams.
Russia was banned on Sunday from the Paralympics that will follow.
Efimova only learned last Friday that she could compete, and officials were forced to reissue the start lists to include her for the breaststroke events.
She was banned between October 2013 and February 2015 after testing positive for traces of the anabolic steroid DHEA, and also briefly suspended after testing positive for meldonium this year.
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