Ellen Walshe highlighted the opening morning of racing at the Singapore Sports Hub, securing a place in the 200m Individual Medley Semi-Final, as the 2025 World Aquatics Championships got underway.
Entering Sunday morning’s opening race ranked in eighteenth place, Walshe impressed with fourth in her heat in 2:11.45, the fifth fastest time of her career, and progresses tenth overall into the semi-final at 1pm (IRL).
The Templeogue swimmer has a best time and holds the Irish Record in 2:10.92 from the 2023 World Championships.
In the 400m Freestyle event, both Jack McMillan (GBR) and Daniel Wiffen took to the blocks. McMillan posted a new personal best time of 3:47.28, placing 14th in the world. Daniel Wiffen clocked 3:47.57 to open his World Championships. Speaking after the race Wiffen said ‘I was pretty disappointed with the overall time; I didn’t follow the race plan I was meant to go. Honestly though I’m happy, it’s a warm-up for my main events later in the week, I’m looking forward to the 800m in the next two days.’
Wiffen in his blog this week revealed he had appendicitis in June and gave an update ‘So I had appendicitis about five weeks ago, obviously I’m hopefully fully covered at this point, I’m not letting it affect me at this World Championships, I’m here to race and race fast’.
The Olympic Champion in the 800m Freestyle returns to the pool for that event on Tuesday morning, where he will be first looking to secure a top eight finish in the heats, to lock in a lane for Wednesday’s Final.
Also competing in the 200m Individual Medley, Ellie McCartney made her World Championships (LC) debut in 2:13.86, the second fastest time of her career. McCartney holds a best time of 2:12.50 from the European U23 Championships in June where she won gold in the event. The National Centre Limerick swimmer will be back in action on Thursday in the 200m Breaststroke.
Eoin Corby, also of National Centre Limerick, swam a seasons’ best in the 100m Breaststroke heats, touching in 1:00.63. Corby will return for the 200m Breaststroke, his main event, on Thursday.
Shane Ryan opened his Championships clocking 23.46 in a speedy 50m Butterfly preliminary. Ryan returns to the pool on Friday for the 50m Freestyle.