Mireia's unstoppable: Three gold medals and a new world record in under 24 hours

Mireia Belmonte, 26, scooped up the gold in the 200-metres butterfly at the World Cup in Eindhoven, The Netherlands on Friday in a time of two minutes and 3.22 seconds – showing she continues to be unbeatable in her strongest stroke.

Then, 50 minutes later, the Olympic champion from Badalona (Barcelona province) doubled her medal count with another win in the 800-metres freestyle, gaining a 1.26-second advantage over her nearest rival, silver-winner Franziska Hentke, from Germany and nearly five seconds faster than bronze medallist, Franziska's compatriot Sara Kohler, in a completion time of eight minutes and 7.47 seconds.

Barely 24 hours later, Mireia made it a hat-trick by taking the gold in the 400-metres medley – and also set a new world record.

Her time of four minutes and 18.94 seconds is officially the fastest on the planet in this category, having beaten the four minutes and 19.46 seconds set by Hungary's Katinka Hosszu in Netanya, Israel on December 2, 2015.

In fact, Mireia also beat Katinka in the same race at Eindhoven – the eastern European netted the silver in four minutes and 25.18 seconds, less than a second ahead of the USA's Ella Eastin, who took the bronze with a time of four minutes and 26.06 seconds.

Mireia now has three golds from the Eindhoven leg of competition, but in the World Cup tournament as a whole, has scooped up a total of four golds, two silvers and a bronze, or seven medals in total.

Photograph from the Fédération Internationale de Natation on Twitter (@fina1908)