An excellent opening swim by Daniel Wiffen has seen him through to the 400 metres freestyle final on day one of the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland.
In his first competitive appearance since undergoing appendix surgery in September, Wiffen was the fastest qualifier across the seven heats, clocking 3:37.04. The final takes place on Tuesday evening (6.07pm Irish time).
Wiffen had spoken beforehand about using the 400m heats as a sort of warm-up exercise, given his recent absence from the pool. But the 24-year-old appeared right back to his best when coming through in lane one to take the win ahead Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany (3:38.07) and Germany’s Olympic 400m freestyle champion Lukas Martens (3:3:38.38).
Wiffen’s time was the third fastest in the world this year and is just over a second outside his personal best and Irish record of 3:35.47. The Olympic 800m champion will now take the centre lane for what should be a tight final, with all eight swimmers separated by just over a second – including Britain’s Jack McMillan, from Belfast, who clocked 3:37.57
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“I feel pretty good, I’m not going to lie it was quite hard,” said Wiffen. “I had to push a bit as I was out in lane nine, it’s probably the worst lane to be in, beside the wall.
“I was in control the whole way, I knew where everybody was, so that was pretty easy for me, because I could bilaterally breath that way. I’m happy with the time, definitely the fastest morning swim that I’ve had, so tonight should be a lot faster.”
It’s two years since Wiffen made his big breakthrough in the 25-metre pool in Romania, where he won the European Short-Course 400m-800m-1,500m treble, his first senior international gold medals. He also became the first Irish swimmer to break a world record when taking almost three seconds off the 800m mark held for 15 years by Australia’s Grant Hackett.
In other Irish action on day one in Lublin, John Shortt broke his own 200m backstroke Irish record to progress to the semi-final of the event. Shortt continued his record-breaking form, winning his 200m backstroke heat in 1:50.65, improving his own record of 1:51.37 set just over a week ago, and progresses to the semi-final in fourth overall.
“It’s nice to get in, first one, shake the nerves off a small bit and see where we’re at,” he said. “I thought it felt really good as I was swimming it, so we’ll see how we go tonight’.
Ellie McCartney swam a personal best of 1:05.83 in the 100m breaststroke to place fourth in her heat, advancing ninth overall to the semi-final.
In the men’s 100m breaststroke heats, Eoin Corby was the best of the Irish in a lifetime best of 58.34. Adam Bradley, making his Irish senior team debut, also swam a personal of 59.54.
Ellen Walshe opened her championships in the 50m butterfly, the Templeogue swimmer warming up for her main events by clocking 25.86. In the same event, Rosalie Phelan made her Ireland debut, swimming a best time of 26.88.
In the men’s 50m butterfly, Jack Cassin (23.34), Evan Bailey (23.73) and Matthew Hamilton (23.91) all tuned up for their main events later in the week, with Cassin and Hamilton swimming personal bests. Cormac Rynn and Denis O’Brien were also in action in the 400m freestyle. Rynn clocked a best time of 3:44.50 with O’Brien touching in 3:52.91.
Live coverage from Lublin is available on www.eurovisionsport.com/en
