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Rebecca Soni of the United States celebrates after winning the 200-meter breaststroke and setting a new world record time of 2:19.59.

updated 2:55 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2012

LONDON - Rebecca Soni of the United States set another world record to defend her 200-meter breaststroke title at the London Olympics on Thursday.

Soni clocked 2 minutes, 19.59 seconds to improve on her own mark from Wednesday's semifinals by 0.41 seconds.

It was the sixth world record in the pool at these games.

Satomi Suzuki of Japan touched in 2:20.72 to take the silver medal and Iuliia Efimova of Russia finished in 2:20.92 for bronze.

Soni was also favored to win the 100 breast but took silver behind surprise 15-year-old winner Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania.

Meilutyte did not enter the 200.