Daniel Wiffen made his long-awaited return to racing with an outstanding swim in the 400m Freestyle heats to progress as the top seed for this evenings Final at the European Aquatics Championships (25m). Jack McMillan, in impressive form this whole year int he 400m Freestyle event, both long course and short course, goes into tonight’s final in second position behind Wiffen. John Shortt broke the 200m Backstroke Irish Record to progress to the semi-final of the event, while Ellie McCartney will swim the 100m Breaststroke semi-final on the opening day of racing in Lublin, Poland.
Paris Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen raced his first race since surgery in September, winning his heat in an impressive 3:37.04, and will have his first opportunity at defending one of the three titles he won at the 2023 European Championships (25m). The Magheralin man will take the centre lane beside his old racing friend Jack McMillan for a very tight final, with all eight swimmers separated by just over a second. Wiffen’s time was the third fastest in the World this year and is just over a second outside his personal best and Irish Record 3:35.47.
Speaking after the race Wiffen said ‘I feel pretty good. I’m not going to lie it was quite hard; I had to push a bit as I was out in lane nine, it’s probably the worst lane to be in, beside the wall. I was in control the whole way, I knew where everybody was, so that was pretty easy for me, because I could bilaterally breath that way. I’m happy with the time, definitely the fastest morning swim that I’ve had, so tonight a lot faster.’
John Shortt continued his record-breaking form, winning his 200m Backstroke heat in 1:50.65. Shortt had set the current Irish Senior and Junior Record of 1:51.37 just over a week ago. He progresses to the semi-final in fourth overall.
The 18-year-old, competing in his last international as a junior, commented ‘It’s nice to get in, first one, shake the nerves off a small bit and see where we’re at. I thought it felt really good as I was swimming it, so we’ll see how we go tonight’.
On the semi-final he continued ‘Be faster. That’s always the aim and you know I’d love to get down near the 1:49 range maybe, that would be a serious swim, but we’ve got to recover well now and get back at it tonight’.
Ellie McCartney swam a personal best of 1:05.83 in the 100m Breaststroke to place fourth in her heat. The National Centre Limerick swimmer advances ninth overall to the semi-final.
In the Men’s 100m Breaststroke Heats, Eoin Corby was the best of the Irish in a lifetime best of 58.34. Adam Bradley, making his Irish senior team debut, also swam a personal best touching in 59.54.
Ellen Walshe opened her Championships in the 50m Butterfly. The Templeogue swimmer warmed up for her main events clocking 25.86. In the same event, National Centre Ulster’s Rosalie Phelan made her Ireland debut swimming a best time of 26.88.
In the Men’s 50m Butterfly, Jack Cassin (23.34), Evan Bailey (23.73) and Matthew Hamilton (23.91) all tuned up for their main events later in the week, with Cassin and Hamilton swimming personal bests.
National Centre Limerick’s Cormac Rynn and Denis O’Brien were also in action in the 400m Freestyle. Rynn clocked a best time of 3:44.50 with O’Brien touching in 3:52.91.
Competition continues this evening through to Sunday.