Daniel Wiffen reaches Euro final as John Shortt breaks Irish record again

"I’m happy with the time, definitely the fastest morning swim that I’ve had, so tonight a lot faster," said Wiffen

Olympic medallist Daniel Wiffen will swim in the 400m freestyle final at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships at 6:09pm on Tuesday evening. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Daniel Wiffen will go in the 400m freestyle final at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships in Poland on Tuesday evening while John Shortt broke the Irish 200m backstroke record as he progressed to the semi-final of the event. Also on Tuesday evening, Ellie McCartney will swim in the semi-final of the 100m breaststroke after setting a new personal best to qualify from her heat. 

Wiffen swam in his first race since surgery in September, winning his heat in an impressive 3:37.04, and will have his first opportunity at defending one of the three titles he won at the 2023 European Championships (25m).

The Olympic medallist will take the centre lane for a very tight final, with all eight swimmers separated by just over a second. 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.

"I feel pretty good," said Wiffen.

"I’m not going to lie it was quite hard; 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 breathe that way. I’m happy with the time, definitely the fastest morning swim that I’ve had, so tonight a lot faster."

The 400m freestyle final will take place at 6:09pm Irish time. 

Shortt continued his record-breaking form, winning his 200m backstroke heat in 1:50.65. The Galway swimmer had set the current Irish senior and junior record of 1:51.37 just over a week ago. He progresses to the semi-final in fourth overall.

The 18-year-old, competing in his last international as a junior, said: "It’s nice to get in, first one, shake the nerves off a small bit and see where we’re at. I thought it felt really good as I was swimming it, so we’ll see how we go tonight."

On the semi-final he added: "Be faster. That’s always the aim and you know I’d love to get down near the 1:49 range maybe, that would be a serious swim, but we’ve got to recover well now and get back at it tonight."

In the men’s 100m breaststroke heats, Eoin Corby was the best of the Irish in a lifetime best of 58.34. Adam Bradley, made his Irish senior team debut, also swimming a personal best, touching in 59.54.

Ellen Walshe opened her championships in the 50m butterfly. The Templeogue swimmer warmed up for her main events clocking 25.86. In the same event, National Centre Ulster’s 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.

National Centre Limerick’s 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.