Having won 1500m Freestyle gold on Thursday night, European Champion Daniel Wiffen was back in action in the 800m Freestyle on Friday morning, securing his place in Saturday’s Final and an opportunity to defend the title he won in 2023.
Wiffen, the World Record holder in the event in 7:20.46, clocked 7:34.60 in this morning’s heats, placing second in his heat and fourth overall. Germany’s Johannes Liebmann is the top seed for the final after he set a new World and European Junior Record of 7:30.94 in the second heat. Of the eight qualifiers for the Final, six came from Wiffen’s heat.
Wiffen said “Feeling pretty good, I tried to make it as comfortable as possible, it felt really good surprisingly, I thought I’d be holding a bit of fatigue, I’m happy, the time is decent and I’m ready for tomorrow night.”
“I’m four-time European champion, and I’ve got a bronze medal now, honestly, I’m just parking it and moving on. I remember the first one, I took all the glory but I’m now here to do a job, and that’s to win the event I came here for.
‘As I said yesterday, I don’t know who made the schedules, but they didn’t favour the distance (swimmers), but I’m ready for tomorrow. I’m excited, I’m the world record holder so it’s good to defend my title. I got to see my name beside the world record on the screen for the first time.’
Ellen Walshe will join Ellie McCartney (200m Breaststroke Final) and John Shortt (100m Backstroke Final) in action in Friday’s Final session after she cruised into the semi-final of the 200m Individual Medley, winning her heat in 2:09.21 and progressing sixth overall.
Speaking after this morning’s heat, Walshe said: “This morning, I just wanted to get back into the top 16 and race my own race, in the middle lanes it can be hard, there’s so much going on around you, I just tried to stick to my own plan and get my hand on the wall.’
‘There’s a great atmosphere amongst the team, around the team area and at meals which is important as we are on day four now and people might start to be getting tired now, so we’ve just got to keep pushing forward.”
Thursday night’s 200m Freestyle Bronze medallist Evan Bailey was the quickest of a quartet of Irish swimmers in the Men’s 100m Freestyle Heats. Bailey posted a lifetime time of 47.53, bettering his 47.86 from 2023.
Bailey spoke after the race “I’m happy enough with that, even if I don’t make it back, I’m happy with a new personal best. To come back and swim that off the back of last night, it was a bit of a sleepless night.’
On last night’s medal he added ‘It hasn’t really sunk in yet, it’s a bit of a crazy feeling, it feels a bit like a dream and hasn’t really happened – it was probably one of the best moments of my life.’
Also, in the 100m Freestyle, Cormac Rynn knocked half a second off his best time of 49.61 clocking 49.02, while Matthew Hamilton was home in 49.80 and Adam Bradley in 50.02.
Jack McMillan also made a splash during the 100m Freestyle as he won his heat in a time of 47.02, marginally outside his best time from the Abu Dhabi 2021 World Short Course Championships. His swim placed him joint-18th and in a reserve spot for the semi-finals this evening.
In the Women’s 100m Freestyle Heats, Rosalie Phelan swam a personal best 54.16, knocking almost a second off the 55.10 she swam at the World Aquatics World Cup in October.
In the USA overnight, Mona McSharry got her long course (50m) season underway with a gold medal at the US Open in Austin. McSharry clocked 30.80 in the heats, lowering that to 30.48 in the final to top the podium. The Olympic bronze medallist will race the 100m Breaststroke on Friday.