It was a night to remember at the European Championships (25m) in Lublin, Poland as Daniel Wiffen claimed Ireland’s second gold medal in the 1500m Freestyle, and Evan Bailey stormed to bronze in the 200m Freestyle, the pair adding to John Shortt’s 200m Backstroke Gold and Wiffen’s 400m Freestyle bronze. Ireland sits fourth on the medal table mid-way through the competition.
There was also success for Ellie McCartney who topped the rankings in the 200m Breaststroke and will be top seed for Friday’s Final, John Shortt set a new Irish Record to advance to the 100m Backstroke Final, Ellen Walshe was eighth in the 100m Individual Medley Final and Eoin Corby set a new Irish Record in the 200m Breaststroke Semi-Finals.
Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen is well and truly back to form after a fantastic win in the 1500m Freestyle, retaining the title he first won in 2023. In a perfectly executed race, Wiffen sat on the shoulder of Zalan Sarkany for 1400 metres, before surging past the Hungarian over the last 100 metres to come home in 14 minutes 13.96 seconds. Sarkany took silver in 14:15.51 with bronze going to Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in 14:19.26.
Talking through the race Wiffen said ‘I’m so happy, I went through so many emotions in that race. Like at the start, I was feeling really rough, I was like, I hope I can stay it this pace. I got to eight hundred and I thought I was done. I counted myself out of the race, and then I was somehow keeping the gap close enough and then I got to three hundred left and the race was actually going pretty quickly in my head, so I was like, all right, if I’m going to go for it, I’m going to have to hammer it last two hundred metres of the race. I don’t know what my split was, but I’m sure it’s probably one of the fastest ever to come back in, but like, honestly that finish just shows the work I’ve been putting into this, and I’m so happy it came out like this. To be honest, I can’t describe like how I did that because it was all just in my head. Like, I just knew that I could go for it. I was like, I’m not going to give up without a fight. And it just happened to be that I was able to hammer it down and I had enough energy to carry it through to the end, and, yeah, I’m just so happy.’
On retaining his first title he added ‘I’ve lost one (400m), I’ve defended one, I’ve got one more (800m). I hope to defend that one, because I’m the well record holder. Yeah, I mean, it’s amazing to get my first ever title defence because I’ve lost two from the world champs and now I’ve got one back, so I’m happy and, you know, it’s just a great way to move forward to the rest of the year.’
Wiffen will be back in the pool on Friday morning for the heats of the 800m Freestyle, an event in which the Olympic Champion over 800m long course, is the World Record holder.
Not long after Wiffen’s gold, Jack McMillan and Evan Bailey tore up the pool in the 200m Freestyle to claim the silver and bronze medal respectively. This is McMillan’s second individual medal on the international stage, and Bailey’s first ever international podium. McMillan entered the final in 3rd position behind teammate Duncan Scott and Lucas Henveaux (BEL), but battled it out with his Stirling training partner right to the very end. Bailey went from thirteenth ranked in the heats, to seventh in the semi-finals, winning a joint bronze medal from an outside lane and sharing the podium with Poland’s Kamil Sieradzki.
The Wexford man, who trains at Swim Ireland’s National Centre in Limerick clocked 1:41.48 to set a third Irish Record in two days, having lowered his heat time of 1:42.68 to 1:42.01 in the semi-finals.
A delighted Bailey said ‘I’m still shocked. I kind of hit the wall and saw those lights in the block, and I was just like, I couldn’t believe it. I knew I was in with a chance in the race but oh my god. I just couldn’t see it happening. It’s what I was thinking about it all day and I wanted it so badly. Like I wanted an international podium so bad all these years. And to finally do it on a senior stage is just an incredible feeling, I don’t know how to react to be honest.
I breath to my right, so going back into the last twenty-five I knew I was in a good position, but I had no idea I was in that position. I couldn’t see the boys that last twenty-five, I just put the head down and just went for it.
Yeah, I mean, my coach John, like obviously absolutely filled me with confidence there, so like an outside lane doesn’t matter in the two free, it’s so tight that anything can happen, and he said, just trust in your training and know what you’ve done. I can’t believe that. I know I had the confidence going in, I knew I could do it, I was telling myself I could do it, I’m shocked.’
Ellie McCartney will be the top seed for Friday’s 200m Breaststroke Final after she swam a personal best to win her semi-final and top the rankings. The 20-year-old entered the semi-finals in second overall in 2:21.39 and bettered that time to 2:18.81 tonight.
McCartney and Great Britain’s Angharad Evans (2:18.84) were the only two swimmers under the 2:19 mark.
McCartney spoke after the race ‘I’m really excited, I’ve never been in this position, especially coming into a senior meet. Hopefully, I can just manage the emotions and try performing better tomorrow.
I know that I’m not the fastest in terms of speed, so I worked my strengths and use that to my advantage, knowing the back end can be fast, but yeah, I worked for my advantage. I was able to put my best foot forward in the semifinal, so hopefully there’s more to come.’
200m Backstroke European Champion John Shortt is through to another Final after he set a new Irish Senior and Junior Record of 50.16 in the 100m Backstroke Semi-Final. The newly crowned World Junior Record holder broke Shane Ryan’s 2020 record of 50.17 to finish fourth in his heat and progresses eighth overall to Friday’s Final.
Shortt spoke after the race ‘I’m kind of tired now, it’s a bit really busy last four or five days, tonight was just about getting the job done and that’s what happened. It was just a pretty solid swim, and I know I can work on some improvements tomorrow.
‘It’s a very different race (to the 200m), different tactically, it’s just about making sure I’m with those guys and be competitive and try get in towards those medals, it’s all very close. There’s only 0.6 in between me and first, it’s all very close, so anything can happen.’
In the 100m Individual Medley Final, Ellen Walshe touched in 58.62, her second-best time ever, for seventh place overall. Walshe pulled out of the 100m Butterfly semi-final earlier today as she moves into a heavy schedule of the 200m Individual Medley, 200m Butterfly and 400m Individual Medley across the next three days.
Speaking after the Medley Final she said ‘I think the girls really stepped it up tonight in the 100m, they dropped at least a second or two off what they previous, I guess to be in it is kind of a surprise (for me) so, yeah, it’s probably just a bit quick for me.’
On the three days ahead Walshe added ‘I think I’ll just take a race at a time, it’s going to be busy, I’m not sure what I’ll do really, like if I’ll do them all. It’s just a lot like, and they’re kind of quite close together in the evening time, so we’ll just have to wait and see.’
The Netherlands Maritt Steenbergen won the 100m Individual Medley Final in a new European and Championship Record of 56.26.
Eoin Corby impressed with a new Irish Record in the 200m Breaststroke semi-finals. The National Centre Limerick swimmer clocked 2:05.89 breaking his own 2024 record of 2:06.45 and placed sixteenth overall.
Commenting after the race Corby said ‘I’m quite happy, to set a new Irish record is very good. I tried something a bit different, I knew my strength lies in coming back quick, but I knew I needed to get out quick to stay with the lads, kind of died a bit during the end, but tried something new, got a PB so I can’t be too disappointed. It’s a stacked race, it’s so quick, it’s unbelievable. It’s unreal to get in and race against those guys and a great experience, hopefully I can learn from that and improve for next time.’
Also, on Friday, McMillan and Bailey will be joined by Cormac Rynn, Matthew Hamilton, and Adam Bradley in the 100m Freestyle Heats while Rosalie Phelan will compete in the Women’s 100m Freestyle Heats.
At the US Open Championships (50m) in Austin, Texas, Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry posted a swift long course season opener of 30.80 in the 50m Breaststroke to top the heats rankings. The Sligo star will swim the final overnight.