'It was all in my head' — Wiffen claims European gold with storming finish in 1500m

Evan Bailey added another medal to the team's haul with a bronze in the 200m Freestyle final 

WON AND DONE: Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen celebrates winning a gold medal. Pic: INPHO/Andrea Masini

It was a night to remember at the European short-course Championships in Lublin, Poland as Daniel Wiffen claimed Ireland’s second gold medal in the 1500m Freestyle, and Evan Bailey stormed to bronze in the 200m Freestyle

Adding to John Shortt’s 200m Backstroke Gold and Wiffen’s 400m Freestyle bronze from earlier in the week, Ireland now sit fourth on the medal table mid-way through the competition.

There was also success for Ellie McCartney who topped the rankings in the 200m Breaststroke and will be top seed for Friday’s Final, Shortt set a new Irish record to advance to the 100m Backstroke Final, Ellen Walshe was eighth in the 100m Individual Medley Final and Eoin Corby set a new Irish Record in the 200m Breaststroke Semi-Finals.

Olympic champion Wiffen is well and truly back to form after a fantastic win in the 1500m Freestyle, retaining the title he first won in 2023. In a perfectly executed race, Wiffen sat on the shoulder of Zalan Sarkany for 1400 metres, before surging past the Hungarian over the last 100 metres to come home in 14:13.96. Sarkany took silver in 14:15.51 with bronze going to Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in 14:19.26.

"I'm so happy, I went through so many emotions in that race," said Wiffen. "Like at the start, I was feeling really rough, I was like, I hope I can stay it this pace. I got to 800 and I thought I was done. I counted myself out of the race, and then I was somehow keeping the gap close enough and then I got to 300 left and the race was actually going pretty quickly in my head, so I was like, all right, if I'm going to go for it, I'm going to have to hammer it last 200 metres.  

"Honestly that finish just shows the work I've been putting into this, and I'm so happy it came out like this. I can't describe how I did that because it was all just in my head. I just knew that I could go for it. I was like, I'm not going to give up without a fight. And it just happened to be that I was able to hammer it down and I had enough energy to carry it through to the end, and, yeah, I'm just so happy."

Wiffen will be back in the pool on Friday morning for the heats of the 800m Freestyle, an event in which the Olympic Champion over 800m long course, is the World Record holder.

Not long after Wiffen’s gold, Bailey tore up the pool to win a bronze medal in the 200m Freestyle, his first ever international podium. Bailey went from thirteenth ranked in the heats, to seventh in the semi-finals, winning the bronze from an outside lane.

The Wexford man, who trains at Swim Ireland’s National Centre in Limerick clocked 1:41.48 to set a third Irish record in two days, having lowered his heat time of 1:42.68 to 1:42.01 in the semi-finals.

Great Britain’s duo of Duncan Scott (1:40.54) and Jack McMillan (1:40.94) took gold and silver respectively while Bailey was joined in third place by Poland’s Kamil Sieradzki.

"I'm still shocked," said Bailey. "I kind of hit the wall and saw those lights in the block, and I was just like, I couldn't believe it. I knew I was in with a chance in the race but oh my god. I just couldn't see it happening. It's what I was thinking about it all day and I wanted it so badly. Like I wanted an international podium so bad all these years. And to finally do it on a senior stage is just an incredible feeling, I don't know how to react to be honest."

Bailey returns on Friday for the heats of the 100m Freestyle. McCartney will be the top seed for Friday’s 200m Breaststroke Final after she swam a personal best to win her semi-final and top the rankings. The 20-year-old entered the semi-finals in second overall in 2:21.39 and bettered that time to 2:18.81 tonight.

McCartney and Great Britain’s Angharad Evans (2:18.84) were the only two swimmers under the 2:19 mark.

"I'm really excited, I’ve never been in this position, especially coming into a senior meet. Hopefully, I can just manage the emotions and try performing better tomorrow," she said.

"I know that I'm not the fastest in terms of speed, so I worked my strengths and use that to my advantage, knowing the back end can be fast, but yeah, I worked for my advantage. I was able to put my best foot forward in the semifinal, so hopefully there's more to come."

200m Backstroke European Champion Shortt is through to another Final after he set a new Irish Senior and Junior Record of 50.16 in the 100m Backstroke Semi-Final. The newly crowned World Junior Record holder broke Shane Ryan’s 2020 record of 50.17 to finish fourth in his heat and progresses eighth overall to Friday’s Final.

At the US Open Championships (50m) in Austin, Texas, Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry posted a swift long course season opener of 30.80 in the 50m Breaststroke to top the heats rankings. The Sligo star will swim the final overnight.