Daniel Wiffen is on course to defend his 800 metres freestyle title after safely negotiating his morning heat on day four of the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland.
Wiffen was back in the pool after successfully defending his 1,500m freestyle title in thrilling style on Thursday night, and the Armagh swimmer did all that was required to make Saturday’s 800m final, placing second in his heat in 7:34.60.
That ranks him fourth fastest among the final qualifiers, but Wiffen appears to have plenty more in reserve. Two years ago he won this title with a world record of 7:20.46. 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.
“Feeling pretty good, I tried to make it as comfortable as possible,” said Wiffen, who also won 400m bronze on Tuesday. “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.”
RM Block
“I’m four-time European champion. 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. 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 be back in action on Friday evening after she cruised into the semi-final of the 200m individual medley, winning her heat in 2:09.21 and progressing sixth overall.
“I just wanted to get back into the top 16 and race my own race,” said. “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.”
After his joint bronze in the 200m freestyle, Evan Bailey was also back in the pool for the men’s 100m freestyle heats. His time of 47.53 was a lifetime best, just not enough to progress.
“I’m happy enough with that,” he said. “To come back and swim that off the back of last night, it was a bit of a sleepless night. It [the bronze medal] 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 clocked 49.80, and Adam Bradley 50.02. In the women’s 100m freestyle heats, Rosalie Phelan swam a personal best 54.16, knocking almost a second off her best.
John Shortt will go in the 100m backstroke final on Friday evening (6.06pm Irish time) looking to add another medal to his 200m backstroke gold. He qualified eighth fastest, while Ellie McCartney will go in the 200m breaststroke final (6.12pm) ranked fastest of the qualifiers.
In the US 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.
