December 14, 2014, Barcelona, Spain – The short course Spanish Nationals came to a close this afternoon, with a big-time finish from the unofficial MVPs of the meet, Mireia Belmonte and Miguel Ortiz.
Mireia Belmonte topped off her sensational meet with a tough double, earning her fifth and sixth wins in the 200m individual medley and 800m freestyle events in today’s second session. Belmonte’s 200m IM time of 2:08.25 places her in the 11th position in the world rankings, tied with the same mark she set at Moscow stop of the World Cup.
For her 800m freestyle, Belmonte’s winning time of 8:11.56 sits fifth in the world rankings in this event, giving her two of the top five spots (she already sits #1 in her time of 8:03.41). Her two golds tonight give Belmonte a total of 6 individual wins over the entire meet: 200m/400m IM, 400m/800m/1500m freestyle, 200m butterfly, which is par for the course for this superstar who just shredded up the times recently at the Short Course Worlds in Doha.
Miguel Ortiz followed up his stellar morning session with yet another individual win, bringing his total gold medal count to 6 as well. Ortiz set a new championship record in the men’s 50m butterfly in his time of 22.61, clearing the rest of the field by about a half second. His final event of the competition was as lead-off for his Real Canoe’s 4 x 100m medley relay team, clocking a swift 51.44 for his part. That was only .10 off of Ortiz’s gold-medal winning individual 100m backstroke time of 51.33 from this morning.
Overall, Ortiz won gold in the men’s 50m butterfly, 50m/100m freestyle, 50m/100m backstroke, and the 100m individual medley.
The other two non-Belmonte/non-Ortiz individual races of the evening were the women’s 50m butterfly, which was won by Carmen Herrero in 27.25, and the men’s 200m IM, whose title was claimed by Alan Cabello in 1:57.19.