Spanish Olympic Champion Belmonte Misses Advancement For 3rd Time

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
• Meet site
• Competition Schedule
• FinaTV Live Stream
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• Results

Mireia Belmonte of Spain made history at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio by becoming her nation’s first-ever swimming gold medalist. Since then, however, Belmonte has dealt with injuries and setbacks, which seem to have caught up with the athlete here in Gwangju.

On day 1, Belmonte placed 21st overall in the women’s 200m IM in a time of 2:14.93, over 5 seconds off of her best of 2:09.45 from way back in 2013. In and of itself, this would not have raised any alarms, as the Spaniard also missed advancing in this event at the 2017 edition of the World Championships.

Belmonte also missed moving on to the final in the 400m free on day 1 here in Korea. She touched in a time of 4:10.82 in the heats, which rendered her in 15th and well out of the final. Back in 2017, Belmonte also missed moving on in this mid-distance free event but was over a second quicker in a time of 4:09.55.

However, what’s causing Belmonte fans concern is that she now also missed advancing in the 1500m freestyle, an event in which she took silver 2 years ago in a time of 15:50.89, a new National Record.

Instead, on day 2 here in Gwangju, Belmonte touched in 16:08.37 to finish in 9th and out of the women’s final set for tomorrow evening.

As reported extensivey on our site, Belmonte has continually been dealing with a nagging shoulder issue for several years. She event withdrew from last summer’s European Championships due to health concerns that included bouts of dizziness, and then back in November, it was revealed she was battling an ankle injury.

It was announced in February that she was back training in full force. But, that still has only given the 6-time LC World Championships medalist about 6 months to prepare for this competition.

With the 800m free, 200m fly and 400m IM still left on her schedule here, if anything, her performances thus far may simply be a catalyst for pointing her training regimen in the right direction with Tokyo 2020 now just a year away.