Seventh place finish for Daniel Wiffen in World Freestyle Final
SEVENTH PLACE: Men’s 400m Freestyle Final
Daniel Wiffen finished in seventh place in the 400m Freestyle final on the opening day at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha Qatar while the Ireland Women's 4x100m Freestyle Replay missed out on an automatic Olympic quota spot by three hundredths of a second.
Wiffen was ranked ninth going into the event, was fourth in the morning heats in 3:45.52 and under the Olympic Qualification Time (OQT) and clocked 3:46.65 in this evening's final finding the early pace of those around him too much.
Wiffen is an 800m and 1500m Freestyle specialist was swimming in the 400m Freestyle for the first time at the World Championships.
The Magheralin man was disappointed with his swim "I wanted to make the final and I did think I’d be able to challenge for the podium, I am disappointed in the swim.
"I tried to go out fast and I think I paid for it in the backend, I don’t really have that speed that they have from the 200m Freestyle, I’m coming down to it unlike the rest of them."
Wiffen will take part in the 800m and 1500m Freestyle later in the week and is looking forward to taking to the pool in his disciplines.
"100% I’m looking forward to getting back into what I like doing and that’s distance freestyle, so with 800m, I’ve a day off and need to get my recovery in, just bang out a solid 800m and try get on the podium in that one."
Following the morning heats, Ireland's 4x 100m Freestyle Women's relay sat in sixteenth place in the Olympic Rankings with Slovenia the only team who could knock them out of the position by swimming faster than the Irish time of 3:41.75. Slovenia swam in the evening final posting a time of 3:41.72, three hundredths of a second faster and pushing Ireland into seventeenth place and out of the automatic Olympic quota places.
Earlier, Darragh Greene swam in the 100m Breaststroke equalled his pre-meet ranking with 20th overall in a time of 1:00.70 just outside the semi-final places.
Shane Ryan was off his best in the 50m Butterfly heats clocking 23.83 finishing in 26th overall. Ryan returns to the water on Wednesday for his main event in the 100m Freestyle.
Sligo's Mona McSharry, who has secured her Olympic qualification, makes her World Championships debut tomorrow in the 100m Breaststroke. McSharry was fifth in the Final of the 2023 edition of the event and is ranked second going into tomorrow's heats. Conor Ferguson and Maria Godden also take to the water tomorrow in the 100m Backstroke.
e: Daniel Wiffen H 3:45.52 (4th) F 3:46.65 (7th)
: Shane Ryan H 23.83 (26th)
: Darragh Greene H 1:00.70 (20th)
: Ireland H 3:43.95 (10th) (Erin Riordan, Grace Davison, Maria Godden, Victoria Catterson)
Conor Ferguson
Maria Godden
Mona McSharry
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