RIO DE JANEIRO - Earlier on Tuesday, Hungary's Katinka Hosszu pulled out of the 200m butterfly heats. It proved to be the right move in a Games where she has not put a foot wrong.

The 27-year-old became the first swimmer from her country to win the women's 200m individual medley, touching home in a new Olympic record time of 2mins 6.58sec.

Great Britain's Siobhan-Marie O'Connor took silver at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in 2:06.88. American Madeline Dirado claimed bronze (2:08.79).

Hosszu was the overwhelming favourite to win her third gold of the Rio Games, particularly after setting an Olympic-record 2:07.45 in the heats.

She also won the 400m individual medley in world-record time on Saturday, before winning 100m backstroke gold on Monday.

"Last year I was aiming to go faster than this and I broke the world record (2:06.12) at the world championships last year so I'm not surprised," said Hosszu of rewriting the Olympic mark again. "I'm so excited to get the gold I can't even believe it. I'm just very excited. I can't believe I have three golds."

At eight of previous 10 Olympics that featured both events, the swimmer that won the women's 400m individual medley also won the 200m four-stroke race. And Hosszu ensured that she would not be the anomaly.

The last Games that featured different winners in these two events was Barcelona 1992, when China's Lin Li won the 200m individual medley and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi was victorious in the eight-lap race.

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