WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES : Kraemer Wins 200 Freestyle After Narrow Loss in Relay

American Karen Kraemer swam a personal-best time of 2 minutes 2.23 seconds to win the women’s 200-meter freestyle at the World University Games on Tuesday.

Narrowly defeated by the Soviet Union’s Natalia Trefilova at the finish of the 800-meter freestyle relay Monday, Kraemer led the 200 from the 60-meter mark and finished .64 seconds faster than she had ever swum the event before.

Trefilova was third behind Canada’s Patricia Noall.

Minutes after Kraemer had won her gold in the pool, China’s Zhuang Yong, who won the 100-meter title Monday, swam even faster than the American in winning the 200-meter “B” final.

Zhuang, the world 50-meter champion, won in 2:01.97 after having failed to reach the “A” final.

“I wish I had been out there to give her a race, but it doesn’t make me feel any worse about it,” said Kraemer, of the Stanford Swimming Club.

Jianqiang Shen won China’s third swimming gold medal by winning the men’s 100-meter butterfly in 54.25. Soviet Andrei Kozirov finished second and American Dan Kutler won the bronze, swimming in his first major games.

Japan’s first gold of the cames came from Takahiro Fujimoto, who swam 2.43 faster than his previous best to win the 400-meter individual medley in 4:23.10. American Gregory Burgess was second in 4:24.53.

Svetlana Kuzmina of the Soviet Union beat Chinese star Lin Li and world champion Elena Volkova to win the women’s 200-meter breast-stroke in 2:31.60 and the Soviets upset the favored Americans to win the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay.

Joshua Davis, of Texas Aquatics, held a slight lead over Sergei Kudryaev going into the final turn but was beaten by two meters.

In women’s gymnastics, the U.S. team beat the Soviet Union for the first time in any major competition, only to lose to North Korea.

Americans Aimee Trepanier, Chari Knight, Kristen Kenoyer and Joy Selig totaled 115.15 points to 114.95 for the Soviets, but the North Koreans won the gold medal with 116.50.

North Carolina teammates Hubert Davis (25 points) and George Lynch (13) led the U.S. men’s basketball team to a 103-57 victory over Ireland in its first game.

The U.S. women beat Japan, 125-38. On Monday, the team beat Ireland, 116-38.

Two Americans were defeated in the second round of singles tennis. Susan Gilchrist lost, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to Spaniard Rosa Bielsa and Angela Lettiere lost, 6-3, 6-4, to Anne Degioanni of France.