Maya DiRado third in 200 IM semifinals to qualify for gold medal race

Santa Rosa’s Maya DiRado posted the third-fastest time in the women’s 200-meter individual medley semifinals Monday night and advanced to the championship race Tuesday night at the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro.

DiRado, who won the silver medal Sunday in the women’s 400 IM, will be up against a strong field in the 200 IM final, led by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who won the 400 IM final in world record time. Hosszu, who earlier Monday night won the gold medal in the 100 backstroke, had the second-fastest time in the IM semifinals, behind only Siobhan-Marie O’Connor of Great Britain.

DiRado covered the four 50-meter legs of the race in a personal record 2 minutes, 8.91 seconds. Hosszu touched the wall in 2:08.13 and O’Connor posted a 2:07.57, an Olympic record.

The 200 IM final is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 7:29 p.m. Pacific time.

In her preliminary heat earlier Monday, DiRado led a field that included defending Olympic champion Ye Shiwen of China in the event and the 2012 silver medalist, Australia’s Alicia Coutts.

In a relatively slow heat, DiRado was clocked in 2:10.24 to 2:10.52 for Coutts and 2:10.56 for Shiwen. The mark easily advanced DiRado to the semifinals, but the time was well off her personal best of 2:08.99, which she set in finishing fourth at the 2015 World Championships.