MIREIA Belmonte is officially world 200-metres butterfly champion after winning the gold medal in Budapest, Hungary yesterday (Thursday).
The Catalunya-born swimmer, from Badalona (Barcelona province) swept past three-times Olympic gold medallist Katinka Hosszu, competing on home territory in what was described as a heart-stopping final flourish, having clawed her way up from sixth position after the first 50 metres.
She shot past all her rivals except Katinka on the second length, proving once again that the 200-metres butterfly is where she is at her most unbeatable, having won the gold in Rio de Janeiro last year as well as the European championships.
Mireia's final stroke of the race gave her the gold in yesterday's world championships by milliseconds – silver-winner Hentke, from Germany, finished on two minutes and 5.39 seconds, whilst her Spanish rival hit the finishing line after two minutes and 5.26 seconds.
Mireia has also qualified for the 800-metres finals, where she could end up taking home another medal.
The 26-year-old, considered one of the best Spanish sportswomen of all time and top in the country in her field in recent history, was referred to by reporters in national daily newspaper 20 Minutos as 'a fish called Mireia' in light of her dizzying track record.
Meanwhile, her compatriot Jessica Vall has earnt her place in today's 200-metre front crawl at the same world championships after achieving the sixth-best time in a series of classes that were dominated by Russia's Yulia Efimova, who set the bar high with a top finishing time of two minutes and 21.49 seconds.
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