Wiffen claims 400m freestyle bronze, Shortt smashes Irish record to reach Euros final

Gold medallist Jack McMillan competed for Ireland at the Tokyo Olympic Games before switching allegiance to Great Britain in 2022.

Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen receives his bronze medal after competing in the men's 400m freestyle final. Pic: ©INPHO/Andrea Masini

Daniel Wiffen claimed bronze for Ireland in the 400m freestyle at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships in Poland on Tuesday evening. 

The Olympic 800m freestyle champion finished behind gold medallist Jack McMillan of Great Britain and German Lukas Martens who claimed silver. The 24-year-old Wiffen touched the wall in 3:37.02, which was 0.02 quicker than the time he swam earlier on Tuesday to reach the final, and 0.69 behind McMillan. 

The Belfast-born McMillan competed for Ireland at the Tokyo Olympic Games before switching allegiance to Great Britain in 2022.

Wiffen started to make his move as they approached halfway, moving into second, and quickly taking the lead. However, as they turned for the final 100m, McMillan surged into the lead. In the final 25m, Wiffen was passed by Martens, who won gold in the event at the Paris Olympics. Another German, 18-year-old Johannes Liebmann, set a new world junior record, finishing just 0.37 behind Wiffen. 

The Magheralin swimmer was the defending champion from the 2023 championships, at which he also won gold in both the 800m and 1500m freestyle. Tuesday morning's swim was Wiffen's first race since he underwent surgery to have his appendix removed in September. 

"I’m going to say I’m really happy," said Wiffen, "you know taking that long out of the water and having that surgery process and then having to come back and be at my best again and all the stuff towards moving to California. It’s amazing to be back on the podium, I’m just a little bit gutted because I kind of died a bit, because I wanted it, I thought we may as well go for the world record because we were so close. You know it was a great race, two Northern Irishmen on the podium."

In his 200m backstroke semi-final, John Shortt smashed the Irish record which he had set on Tuesday morning by 1.81 seconds. The Galway teenager won his semi-final in 1:48.84, which was also the fastest time of the two semis. Shortt will go in his final at 6:17pm on Wednesday. 

"I’m shattered after that," said Shortt. "It was a huge swim, just missing out on 1:49 and going straight to 1:48, you can’t be angry at that. I’m really excited for tomorrow evening to see how we go there.

"I just wanted to be 1:49.9, to be 1:48.8 I can’t help but not be surprised with that, but also just really happy you know, I’m coming back into a nice bit of form now, we’re building nicely into the rest of the week and then long course season is soon enough."

Ellie McCartney reached the final of the 100m breaststroke with a 1:05.06 swim. McCartney finished fifth in her semi-final but her time was good enough to claim the eighth spot in the final. Her final will be held at 7:04pm on Wednesday.

"I’m really happy with the time and I’m really happy as I’ve been struggling with the event this year, so to get it right, in the semi-finals, in order to make the final, I’m really happy with it," said McCartney. "I just love getting in and racing girls that are faster than me so I can chase them, so I think that really pushes me on and it helps to get PBs at the right time."