Mireia Belmonte is lined up for another gold medal on day 3 of the 2014 World Short Course Championships on Doha, Qatar, in what should be a fantastic battle even with a noteable absence.
The 8 finalists in the 400 free prelims ranged only from 4:02.30 to Belmonte’s 4:00.29, and include the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal, who has been one of the world’s biggest breakout swimmers of 2014′ and the young, unproven, but also unafraid 16-year old Chinese swimmer Yufei Zhang. Zhang has that famous last 50 kick that so many of the young generation of Chinese women have developed.
Belmonte is the World Record holder in this race at 3:54.52; she broke World Records in her first two races of this meet (the 400 IM and 200 fly), both of which were events where she wasn’t previously the record holder. She was fairly well off of her World Record in the 800 on Thursday.
There were no scratches for finals before Friday’s evening session in Doha, but significantly, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu scratched out of the 400 free in prelims. This will back her off of her 10 individual entry schedule that seemed too-much-to-be-true at a meet of this level, and proved to be as much when Hosszu only finished 9th in the 800 free on Thursday.
If Belmonte is able to win the gold medal, it will tie her with Slovakian great Martina Moravcova for the second-most World Short Course Championship individual gold medals by a woman in history at 7; one more to end the meet would push Belmonte to a tie with American Jenny Thompson at 8.