Almost double the distance, and Daniel Wiffen is right on course for an Olympic swimming double after cruising through his heats of the 1,500m inside the Paris La Défense Arena just after noon on Saturday.
Back in the pool four days after winning the 800m freestyle gold medal on Tuesday night, Wiffen dominated the third of the four heats, easing to the front from just after the halfway mark to win in 14:40.34, ahead of the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, who finished over two seconds back in 14:42.56 – and had to settle for bronze behind Wiffen in the 800m.
From 200m before the finish Wiffen started to ease up, content his work over the 30 lengths was done for day, and already thinking ahead to Sunday’s final (5.37pm Irish time).
He qualified fastest of the eight. The fourth and final heat was won by Ahmed Jaouadi from Tunisia, the 19-year-old just getting the better of defending champion Bobby Finke from the USA, who won silver behind Wiffen in the 800m. Jaouadi touched home in 14:44.20, Finke in 14:45.31.
In the second of the four heats, Kuzey Tuncelli laid down an impressive marker, the 16 year old from Turkey cruising to the win in 14:45.27, swimming most of that race just off world record pace
Wiffen, however, will again get the prime lane four the final, and there’s little doubt now what’s on his mind – the world record mark of 14:31.02 still belonging to Sun Yang since the 2012 Olympics in London. That came before the Chinese swimmer was handed an eight-year ban in 2020 for interfering with a doping sample, a sanction that was later reduced to four years and three months on appeal.
“I’ll give you a little insight, I am going to try and crack the world record,” he said. If it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t but I think personally that it’s going to take that to win gold. We’ll see.”
“I’m not gonna lie, I felt like I was carrying a bit of fatigue still. I haven’t really slept properly since the 800m. I’m still getting eight hours but it’s not the perfect sleep that I want. The start was a bit uncomfortable and then I really settled into the pace and I was actually kind of surprised that I went that fast. It felt like a 14:50 swim but it was a 14:40, maybe my pace is a bit off in my head but we’ll see.
As for his recovery plans before Sunday night, he said: “Just sleep a lot. That’s what the Chinese 100m freestyler said when he broke the world record and that’s exactly what I’m going to do…sleep a lot. I’ve had to park the 800, put it in the back of my mind, going into this race I’m looking at it as I haven’t won anything and going in with the same attitude as the 800m final.”
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The Armagh swimmer has a best of 14:34.07, set when winning the world championship gold in Doha in February, and the 23-year-old is already the first Irish swimmer to break a world record.
In the 800m Wiffen won in 7:38.19, smashing the Olympic record of 7:41.28 set by Mykhailo Romanchuk when qualifying for the final in Tokyo.
Last December Wiffen broke the only world record at the European Short Course Championships, on the outskirts of Bucharest, winning his third gold medal of the week in the 800m freestyle.
Wiffen’s winning time there of 7:20.46 took a full three seconds off the previous mark set by Australian Grant Hackett. This was no ordinary world record, given it was the longest-standing one in the swimming books and belonged to Hackett, a seven-time Olympic medal winner (including three gold) since July 2008.
In the heats of the men’s 4x100 medley, the quarter of Conor Ferguson, Darragh Green, Max McCusker and Shane Ryan finished in sixth place, setting a new national record of 3.33.81.
They missed out on the final by just over a second, ranked in 11th place overall. The USA won the heat in 3:31.62.
In the women’s 4x100m medley heats, the Irish quartet of Danielle Hill, Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe and Grace Davison touched home in seventh, in 4:00.12, smashing their previous Irish record of 4:01.25. Canada took the there win in 3:56.10. Italy were disqualified, so Ireland moved up to sixth, and were also ranked 11th overall.
In the women’s 50m Freestyle Danielle Hill clocked her third fastest time ever to finish eighth in her heat and 21st overall in 25.02. The Larne swimmer has had a busy week competing in the Women’s freestyle relay and 100m backstroke as well as Saturday mornings two events, progressing to the semi-final of the backstroke event.
