Another small piece of Irish swimming history for Daniel Wiffen, and the chance now for another golden one to come, with his progression to the men’s 800m freestyle final every bit as bold and impressive as he would have liked.
After four heats, each of 16 lengths which invariably separates the true medal contenders from the rest, Wiffen’s 7:41.53 was the fastest of the lot, just 0.25 of a second off the Olympic record – and giving him a prime lane for the medal showdown.
The 23-year-old becomes the first Irish male swimmer to make an Olympic final, that set for Tuesday night back inside the Paris La Défense Arena (8.02 Irish time), and by Wiffen’s own admission here he was only at “95 per cent”.
The Armagh swimmer will have defending champion Bobby Finke from the US to contend with, fifth fastest of the qualifiers with his 7:43.00, with Ahmed Jaouadi from Tunisia also laying down a marker with his 7:42.07, the second fastest of the lot.
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No surprise though that Wiffen was talking up his own medal hopes, as he has since he won a double World title in February, in both the 800m and the 1,500m.
“It’s never comfortable, but it wasn’t at 100 percent,” he said, Wiffen taking over the lead from just after the halfway mark, as the Australia duo of Sam Short and Elijah Winnington set the pace.
“You didn’t see my legs come in at the end, but holding a good pace, happy with the morning swim, and a fast time as well.
“I’m not going in there with 100 percent effort trying to make the final. I’m there to get the job done and hopefully finish it in the final. I said before, any lane has a chance. I’ll be looking at everybody, see how everybody swims it, making sure I’ll be one of the best there tomorrow night.
So what was his effort here?
“That’s a tough one to say, we’ll go with 95… but 100 per cent I’m the fittest I’ve ever been, never been in this shape before in my life.
He then added: “The time didn’t surprise me at all, I actually thought I’d be a little bit faster, I was only 0.25 off an Olympic record and no Irishman or woman has ever done that so that would have been pretty cool to get but we’ll save that for tomorrow night.
“Any medal is good, it’s my first race here, it’s my first time being in contention for an Olympic medal, so I’ll take any medal, whatever colour, and then we got another two races after this and I’m looking forward to the one in the Seine [the 10km marathon], especially.”
After Armagh winning the All-Ireland on Sunday, he also feels his stars are aligning.
“Yeah Armagh won, my birthday is on July 14th, Bastille Day, what is it, 100 years since Ireland competed in Paris? It just seems everything is aligning, doesn’t it?”
Earlier, Ellen Walshe produced a brilliant finish to snatch fourth place in her heat of the 400m individual medley, and a spot in that final tonight (7.30 Irish time).
Her time of 4:39.97 seconds placed her seventh overall, the 22-year-old from Dublin just off her best of 4:37.18, with Canada’s Summer McIntosh, one of the favourites for the event, winning the heat in 4:37.35
Danielle Hill also touched home in fourth in the women’s 100m backstroke, and good enough to see her make the semi-final tonight too (7.57 Irish time).
For Walshe, who came to Paris ranked 15th, making the final – and joining her roommate Mona McSharry – was indeed most satisfying: “It’s a bit of a shock, I saw fourth on the board and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know’, it’s just a waiting game,” she said. “I hadn’t seen the results from the heats before and once I saw it, it was such a relief.
“And Mona is my roomie, she came back at all hours this morning after recovery and physio and swim down. We had joked about hopefully us all being in the final tonight, I am so glad to join her there. I can go back to the room and we can do the exact same thing tonight. I am super excited.”
Hill will also be back in the pool later on Monday for her 100m backstroke semi-final: “What an incredible experience, the noise is just deafening, we went from Covid times, to this, so you have to soak it up as well,” she said.
“But everything we’ve been working on is there, and now we’ve just got to utilise all the stuff I’ve been working on. We reset, and see it there another gear there. I’m happy to have made the semi-final, still a bit job to do. But very happy with the decision to come back this year.”
Then it’s over to McSharry, who qualified for 100m breaststroke final ranked second fastest overall, and ahead of some of the best event specialists of all time, improving her Irish record to 1:05.51. And no reason whatsoever to stop thinking about that medal chance now – her final is set for 8.25pm Irish time.
