BY FAWAD HUSSAIN
DOHA: Dreams do come true! And this is exactly what happened when Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia smashed two world records on her way to win a brace of gold medals on the opening day of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships that kicked off in style at the Hamad Aquatic Centre in Doha, yesterday.
Garcia, the double silver medalist in the London Olympics in 2012, first broke the five-year old world record in women’s 200m butterfly when she completed the victory in just one minute 59.61 seconds, overcoming China’s Zige Liu’s feat of two minutes 78 seconds that was set in Berlin in November 2009.
Motivated by the emphatic 200m butterfly win, Garcia who celebrated her 24th birthday last month, raced to victory in the women’s 400m individual medley finals in only four minutes 19.86 seconds, surpassing Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu’s last year’s record of four minutes 20.85 seconds.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s like a dream for me,” the jubilant Garcia said after earning two gold medals on the opening day.
“I was not expecting such a performance from myself as I was nervous when I woke up in the morning. It’s just an amazing performance,” added the Barcelona-born swimmer. “Win in the first race motivated and helped me claim the second race which was a tougher one.”
On her way to glory, Garcia outsmarted ‘The Iron Lady’ — Hosszu — who was expected to steal the show like her performance in last August’s FINA World Cup in Doha, when she swept the majority of medals.
But, Hosszu was confined to silver medals in both the competitions and it was sheer hard work that led Garcia to break record after record.
“I prepared a lot for this season. I would like to thank my coach [Fred] for helping me out,” said the swimmer while hoping to repeat the show in 2016 Olympics in Rio. “With just 18 months left, these world records are a perfect launch pad and a huge motivation for my Olympics preparations which is my main goal.”
Franziska Hentke of Germany claimed bronze in the women’s 200m butterfly while Hannah Miley of Great Britain finished with a similar fate in the women’s 400m individual medley final.
In the only individual event for men on the opening day, 22-year old Chad Le Clos of South Africa claimed the gold medal by winning the men’s 200m freestyle final in one minute 41.45 seconds.
Danila Izotov of Russia (1:41.67) earned silver while seasoned Ryan Lochte of USA claimed bronze medal by finishing the job in one minute 42.9 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ women took opening day’s honour of teams events when they created a new world record in 4x200m freestyle and won gold medal with a top finish in seven minutes 32.85 seconds.
The quartet, including Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Sharon Van Rouwendaal, broke the previous record of seven minutes 35.94 seconds set by China in Dubai, four years ago. China and Australia claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.
Gold medals for men’s 4x100m freestyle went to France with a time of three minute 3:03.18, a new championship record. Clement Mognon, Fabien Gilot, Florent Manaudou and Mehdy Metella bettered record of their own team-mates, set four years ago in Dubai. Russian and France won silver and bronze medals respectively.
Apart from the finals, five semi-finals of various events were also competed on the first day of the championship, which kicked off with a simple but impressive opening ceremony.
THE PENINSULA
