Mireia Belmonte, the Spaniard with three world short-course (2010) and four European short-course (2011) crowns in her treasury and looking for her first major long-course honours at global level this year at London 2012, got her Olympic season off to a solid start with two swift 400m swims at the Catalan Championships in Tarrassa.
Coached by Fred Vergnoux at Sabadell near Barcelona, Belmonte clocked 4:07.10 in the 400m freestyle and 4:38.77 in the 400m medley at the weekend. The freestyle effort marked Belmonte's best ever and fell just 0.08sec any of the Spanish record held by Melanie Costa since Shanghai world titles last July.
Belmonte's best had been a 4:08.35 since March last year. So far this year, the best 400m free in the world is the 4:05.90 clocked by Baltimore's Allison Schmitt at the Austin GP in the US.
Belmonte's medley effort took her to the helm of the very early 2012 world rankings, 0.03sec ahead of the personal best established by Texas A&M's (Natalie) Cammile Adams at the Austin GP.
