Remedy Rule misses out on 200-meter butterfly final

Remedy Rule.

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA—While Nesthy Petecio has assured herself of a Tokyo Olympic medal, Remedy Rule missed out on a chance to have hers in her final swim in the quadrennial meet.

Rule's stint in the Tokyo Olympics came to an end on Wednesday as she fell short of making the final of the women's 200-meter butterfly event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Rule finished last in Heat 2 of the semifinals and placed 15th overall out of 16 with a time of two minutes and 12.89 seconds, slightly slower from her finish in the preliminary heats the night before.

Zhang Yufei of China ruled the semifinal phase after winning Heat 2 at the time of 2:04.89.

Zhang was actually on track of eclipsing the Olympic record set by compatriot Jiao Liuyang in 2012 as Zhang was at 1:31.74 150 meters in, a full second faster than how Jiao performed nine years ago, before slowing down in the final length of the pool to fall 0.83 second shy of the record of 2:04.03.

Hali Flickinger of the United States won Heat 1 and took the second seed in the final with a time of 2:06.23.

Alys Thomas of Great Britain got the last ride to the eight-woman final after finishing at 2:09.07.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno