Belmonte Records World’s Second Fastest 400 Freestyle at Spanish Championships

Mireia Belmonte took the women’s 400 freestyle at the Spanish National Championships in a time of 4:04.99. Belmonte’s time places her second in the world rankings to Katie Ledecky who is still four seconds clear of the Spaniard.

2014-2015 LCM Women 400 Free

KatieUSA
LEDECKY
08/02
3.59.13
2Sharon
VAN ROUWENDAAL
NED4.03.0208/02
3Jessica
ASHWOOD
AUS4.03.3408/02
4Jazmin
CARLIN
GBR4.03.5104/15
5Lauren
BOYLE
NZL4.03.8804/03
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Belmonte’s time is the third fastest that she has recorded in her career.

  • 2014 Spanish Championships – 4:03.84
  • 2014 European Championships – 4:04.01
  • 2015 Spanish Championships – 4:04.99

Melanie Costa Schmid finished second in a time of 4:07.52 which puts her eighth in the world rankings. Alice Mizzau finished second in a time of 4:12.37, nearly five seconds off her season’s best of 4:07.11.

Viktoria Zeynep Gunes destroyed the Turkish record in the women’s 200 breaststroke winning the event in a time of 2:23.47. Her time also places her third in the world rankings behind Rikke Moller Pedersen and Kanako Watanabe.

2014-2015 LCM Women 200 Breast

ViktoriaGUNES
ZEYNEP
08/29
2.19.64*WJR
2Kanako
WATANABE
JPN2.20.9004/12
3Rikke
MOLLER PEDERSEN
DEN2.21.5806/10
4Rie
KANETOU
JPN2.21.9004/12
5Micah
LAWRENCE
USA2.22.0408/06
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Gunes’ recorded her lifetime best of 2:23.01 at the 2013 World Championships where she finished third in the event. Up until 2013 the 16 year old represented the Ukraine, but when the country was engulfed in political strife the star athlete fled to Turkey.

Jessica Vall Montero gave Gunes a race up until the last 50 meters where the Turk out swam the Spaniard by over two seconds.

  • Gunes – 33.50/1:10.27 (36.72)/1:47.33 (37.06)/2:23.47 (36.14)
  • Vall Montero – 33.32/1:09.54 (36.22)/1:46.69 (37.15)/2:24.88 (38.19)

Vall Montero finished second in a time of 2:24.88 followed by Victoria Kaminskaya who hit the wall in a time of 2:31.37.

Melquiades Alvarez won the men’s event in a time of 2:13.95.

Miguel Navia Duran took the men’s 400 freestyle in a new Spanish record time of 3:49.76. The previous record of 3:49.82 was set by Marco Rivera Miranda in 2008. Marc Torrens took the silver in a time of 3:52.36 followed by Aranu Rovira Guillen who touched in a time of 3:54.51.

Yauhen Tsurkin won the men’s 50 butterfly in a time of 23.36 to take over the second place spot in the world rankings. Tsurkin sits eight one-hundredths of a second away from Cesar Cielo and one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Andrey Govorov who posted a 23.37 on the weekend.

2014-2015 LCM Men 50 Fly

2Nicholas
DOS SANTOS
BRA22.9004/10
3Laszlo
CSEH
HUN23.0608/02
4Konrad
CZERNIAK
POL23.0708/02
5Cesar
Cielo
BRA23.1104/10
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Konrad Czerniak and Jose Canizares tied for second both touching in a time of 23.68 which puts them seventh in the world rankings.

Svenja Stoffel won the women’s event in a time of 26.71.

Mercedes Peris took the women’s 100 backstroke in a time of 1:01.00 followed by Duane Da Rocha who hit the wall in a time of 1:01.07. Laura Fernadez finished a distant third posting a time of 1:02.51.

Juan Miguel Rando took the men’s event in a time of 54.51.

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
8 years ago

It’s incredible to see how far ahead Ledecky is compare to other worldly times on the 400 and 800 . Belmonte can surely grab some medals next summer but as Bobo and Aswimfan suggested , she better know in which events to put her energy in and choose them carefully .

Dee
8 years ago

So Zeynep-Gunes is Solntseva? Makes sense, I was wondering where she’d gone.

bobo gigi
8 years ago

Mireia’s best chance of gold medal next summer is by far the 200 fly in my opinion.
A silver medal chance in the 800 free.
And a medal chance in the 400 IM and perhaps the 400 free too.

aswimfan
Reply to  bobo gigi
8 years ago

She should limit her events to 400 IM and 200 fly.

But then again, she’s an iron woman, and she could throw in 800 If the schedule doesn’t get in the way of 200 fly and 400 IM.

She should forget about 400 free and 200 IM.

bobo gigi
Reply to  aswimfan
8 years ago

She should forget the 200 IM and the 1500 free in my opinion.

aswimfan
Reply to  bobo gigi
8 years ago

Oh, when you said next summer I thought you meant 2016 Rio.

About Jeff Grace

Jeff Grace

Jeff is a 500 hour registered yoga teacher who holds diplomas in Coaching (Douglas College) and High Performance Coaching (National Coaching Institute - Calgary). He has a background of over 20 years in the coaching profession, where he has used a unique and proven teaching methodology to help many achieve their …

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