Daniel Wiffen Earns Ireland’s First Worlds Swimming Medal

2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

One of the most exciting parts of the absence of many of the biggest names from swimming powerhouse countries at the 2024 World Championships is that it’s allowed other swimmers to step up. This is reflected in the medal table, as swimmers from many different countries have made their mark. Through 18 events, swimmers from 12 different countries have won gold. Many swimmers are earning their country’s first medals at World Championships.

Today, it was Daniel Wiffen‘s turn to make history for his country.

Wiffen won gold in the men’s 800 freestyle, which marks Ireland’s first non-para swimming medal at a World Championships.

The 22-year-old Irishman has been building to this moment and his first World title since last year. At the 2023 Stockholm Open, he unleashed massive best times in the 400/800/1500 freestyle. The highlight was his 1500 free performance and in the 800 free, he swam 7:44.45, a national record that moved him to #22 on the all-time performers list.

He bettered that during the heats in Fukuoka with a new personal best 7:43.81. Then, he obliterated that time in the final, blazing a 7:39.19 for a new European record. But despite dropping almost five seconds, breaking Gregorio Paltrinieri‘s European record, and vaulting up to 9th fastest all-time, Wiffen just missed the podium. It was a historically fast final, and despite a late charge, Wiffen did not have enough room to track down Bobby Finke for bronze.

It was a similar story in the 1500 freestyle in Fukuoka, where Wiffen once again finished 4th.

But Wiffen continued to put up strong performances through the back half of the 2023 season. He swam well at the LEN European U23 Championships. At the SC European Championships, he broken the world record in the SCM edition of this race, coming home blisteringly fast to better Grant Hackett‘s record in 7:20.46.

That performance–the only world record in 2023– was a confidence booster heading into these World Championships. But even though his main competition, 2023 world champion Ahmed Hafnaoui isn’t on his Fukuoka form, Wiffen still had a brief moment of doubt. “After the 400m Freestyle, and the seventh place, it was a bit of ‘are we going to do alright in the 800m’,” he said. It was short-lived though. “After warm-up I thought, ‘yep we’ve got this.’”

Wiffen timed his race well, not letting either Elijah Winnington or Paltrinieri get too far ahead of him in the first part of the race. Winnington is the ‘sprinter’ of the group as a 200/400 freestyle specialist and was in his first 800 free Worlds final. Paltrinieri is known for taking the race out fast.

Both were ahead of Wiffen through the first half of the race. But around the 500-meter mark, Wiffen tracked down Winnington and began to close the gap to Paltrinieri. He’d brought the gap down to three-tenths at the 700-meter mark and taken control by the 750, claiming the title in 7:40.94.

Like Hugo Gonzalez yesterday, Wiffen is also well aware of what his medal means for swimming in his country.

“Mona [McSharry] missed out last night and we’re just all getting after each other and seeing what is possible in this week in the pool,” Wiffen told the press.

“I guess we haven’t been known for swimming in Ireland but its definitely getting up there, especially after breaking the short course record, and now being world champion, I’m kind of lost for words. It’s just so cool to say that we are really putting Irish swimming up there, and are bringing the gold, and I am just speechless about the whole thing.”

Quick Hits

• Italy picked up steam in the medal table today. They earned three over the course of the session courtesy of Alberto Razzetti‘s 200 fly silver (1:54.65), Nicolo Martinenghi‘s 50 breast silver (26.39), and Paltrinieri’s 800 freestyle bronze (7:42.98). They have the most total medals of all the European nations with six. It’s one more medal than they had at this point at 2023 Worlds, even with Thomas Ceccon (who would’ve been a medal threat in the 50 fly and 100 back) absent.

Other Continental and National Records

• Kristof Rasovszky broke the Hungarian record during the men’s 800 freestyle final. He swam 7:44.42 for 5th place, cutting a half-second off the record Gergő Kis set in 2011.
• In the heats of the men’s 100 freestyle, Matej Duša reset the Slovakian record. He owned the previous standard of 49.67 from the 2022 Slovak Championships. In Doha, he lowered the record to a 49.12, dropping .55 seconds from his previous record and best time.

European Medal Table Thru Day 4