Mireia is a golden girl

SPANISH swimmer Mireia Belmonte has won three gold medals and broken two world records so far this week at the FINA World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

The swimmer from Cataluña won the 200 metres butterfly with a time of 1:59.61 and 400 metre medley in 4:19.86 and became the first woman in history to finish a 200 metre butterfly race in less than two minutes on the first day of competition.

The following day 24–year-old Belmonte won a third gold in the 800 metres freestyle race with a time of 8:03.41. Although she fell short of her own world record of 7:59.34 the medallist beat Briton Jaz Carlin, the swimmer that beat her in Berlin last August, by 4.75 seconds. Dutch woman Sharon Van Rouwendaal took the bronze medal with a time of 8:08.17.

Belmonte will take part in another two races in Doha. Her team-mate Maria Vilas said that the two world records Belmonte broke in under an hour were simply amazing.