Thanks to Bart Kizierowski for contributing to this report.
Spanish swimmer Mariea Belmonte has broken another World Record in the 2013 SCM season, marking her 3rd such performance just since the World Championships in Barcelona this summer.
The 23-year old hero of Spanish swimming swam a 15:26.95 in the 1500 meter freestyle, which destroyed Lotte Friis’ all-time previous mark of 15:28.65, set in 2009. That brings the number of remaining World Records set in the 2008-2009 polyurethane body-suit era down to exactly 50.
The swim was done in the first session of the Spanish Short Course National Championships in Castellon, which run through Sunday. This will likely be Belmonte’s last chance to swim this 1500 this season, as it is not on the schedule at the European SC Championships in December.
Belmonte would say after the swim that “it was a surprise,” and that she was “not expecting” this latest World Record. This added to her previous marks in the 400 and 800 SCM freestyles, which were both set at the August stop of the FINA World Cup in Berlin.
Joining her in the record-breakers club is Victor Martin in the men’s 200 free. He was a 1:44.42 in the men’s 200 free, which gives him a new Spanish Record – breaking the 1:44.45 set by Albert Medrano in 2009. That time by Martin is an improvement of almost five seconds from his previous SCM lifetime best at 20 years old, though in fairness, his old SCM best was slower than his LCM best (1:49.22) so the time is not an illogical one for him.
The meet is being live streamed here:
Mireia is a tough horse.
I remember Maria Lenk Trophy 2012 in the last day when she made 4.05 high in 400free doing weights between sessions!Incredible!A lot of swimmers;”How does she do it?”
Amazing swimmer.
probably one of the more underrated swimmers out there, her range is simply amazing. we’ll see if Ledecky will make a run at her WRs.
It’s interesting that the youngest/latest women’s WR is the SCM 1,500 that Belmonte just swam, but the oldest men’s WR is the SCM 1,500 by Hackett.