Sheila Taormina of the United States broke the Olympic record for Swimming in the women's modern pentathlon competition at the Yingdong Natatorium on Friday.

It's Lena Schoneborn from Germany that remained in the lead overall.

Taormina completed the 200 meters freestyle swimming in 2:08.86, smashing Frenchwoman Amelie Caze's previous mark of 2:14.44.

Gold medal favorite Caze finished second to move up to fourth overall after three disciplines. Heather Fell of Britain was third in the pool and is now joint second overall with Egyptian Aya Medany, who was eighth in the swimming.

The top five in the swimming beat Caze's previous Olympic record. Schoneborn finished 10th in the pool and saw her overall lead cut from 60 to 48 points. The world No. 3 came 20th in the shooting in the morning before winning the fencing.

Anastasia Samusevich of Belarus slipped from joint third to joint 17th overall after coming 33rd in the pool, while Paulina Boenisz of Poland dropped from joint third to 11th after coming 27th in the swimming.

Defending Olympic champion Zsuzsanna Voros is 19th overall, after she finished joint 11th in the swimming.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)