The 24-year-old finished third in her heat of the 200m breaststroke in a time of 2:23.30 - just 0.12 of a second outside of her personal best time.

That time was good enough for ninth position overall and a berth in Thursday's semi-finals in Tokyo.

"I (feel) so much better,'' Strauch told Channel 7 after her swim.

"It's been a long wait and I knew as soon as I dove in and felt that water that I'd feel more at ease.

"I'm looking forward to, hopefully, getting a good night's sleep and then getting back into it in the morning."

After making a steady start to her heat, Strauch made her move in the second 50 and by the halfway point was in second place behind runaway leader Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa.

Strauch maintained her form to be in second place, two seconds behind Schoenmaker with one lap remaining.

In a drive to the finish, she was just touched out for second place.

Schoenmaker won the heat in an Olympic record time of 2:19.16.

The two 200m breaststroke semi-finals are scheduled for 12.54pm (AEST) and 1.01pm (AEST) on Thursday.

The fastest eight swimmers from the semi-finals earn a berth in Friday's final.

Read more: Junior coach lauds Strauch

Read more: Catch up on the latest news from Tokyo

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