London 2012 Olympics: Jemma Lowe sixth as Jiao grabs gold in 200 butterfly

BRITAIN’S Jemma Lowe was a highly-creditable sixth in the 200 metres butterfly final last night as China’s Jiao Liuyang added the Olympic title to the World Championship gold she won last year.

Lowe had squeezed into the final in eighth place but she gave it a real go, turning third at halfway and battling down the final length to touch in two minutes 06.80 seconds.

The Swansea ITC’s race came immediately after the medal presentation for the men’s 200m breaststroke in which Michael Jamieson had won silver.

The crowd were still on a high and gave the 22-year-old a raucous welcome. Her sixth-place finish was one better than at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.

Jiao’s time of 2mins 04.06secs was a new Olympic record as she upgraded her silver medal from Beijing.

Nathan Adrian destroyed James Magnussen’s ambition of adding the Olympic title to his world crown when the American out-touched him by one one hundredth of a second in the 100 metres freestyle.

Magnussen, known as ‘The Missile’, had been the red-hot favourite coming into London but doubts arose when the sprint freestyle relay squad finished out of the medals. Last night’s race was a proper head-to-head down the second length with Adrian taking the title in 47.52 seconds.

Rebecca Soni set a new world record of two minutes 20.00 seconds in the semi-finals of the 200 metres breaststroke.

The defending Olympic champion already held the Olympic record but Annamay Pierse was the world record holder, setting the mark at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.

It was the second world record of the night after Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta’s had set a new mark of 2mins 07.28secs in the men’s 200m breaststroke.