King calls truce with Russian rival

Lilly King broke the women’s 50m breaststroke world record in seeing off rival Yuliya Efimova on Sunday, with the Russian insisting the war of words between the pair is now over.

King clocked 29.40sec in Sunday’s 50m final at the world championships, breaking the four-year-old record, with Efimova taking silver at 0.17sec back.

It was 20-year-old King’s second world record in Budapest after also breaking the 100m breaststroke mark in winning Tuesday’s final.

The victory was King’s second of the week over Efimova, who took bronze in the 100m final but beat the American over 200m on Friday when King finished fourth.

King sparked a war of words at last year’s Rio Olympics when she branded the Russian a drugs cheat after Efimova’s 16-month ban for doping, which ended in February 2015.

The Russian responded by saying King had turned Olympic swimming into war, but Efimova insisted peace has now broken out between the pair.

“What happened before, in another competition, it doesn’t matter now,” said Efimova.

“I’m really happy and today she (King) told me she loves to race with me, because it makes her race faster too and it makes it more interesting to watch.”

King said of their relationship: “We are not best friends, we are rivals, but I was having a good time racing her.”