Daniel Wiffen won’t forget his trip to Doha any time soon, rounding it off in some style on Sunday with, as Ian O’Riordan describes it, an “absolute masterclass in freestyle swimming”. It earned him his second gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships, the 22-year-old adding the 1,500m freestyle title to the 800m one he’d earned earlier in the week. And, for good measure, he was awarded the trophy for Best Male Swimmer at the event. The chat before had been about whether Ireland could win a first medal at this championship level – two golds and two startling performances later and Wiffen has “the entire swimming world talking”.
Meanwhile, we have a new favourite to succeed Stephen Kenny as Republic of Ireland manager, Gavin Cummiskey reporting that Chris Coleman is now being tipped to get the job – the likelihood being that Lee Carsley, the FAI’s first choice, will stay in charge of the England under-21s.
In Gaelic games, it was a busy weekend in the football league, Gordon Manning in Cullen Park to witness yet another bad day at the office for Kildare who were beaten by 14 points by Armagh. “The fight never materialised from Kildare, not until it was all over,” he writes, manager Glenn Ryan having a testy exchange with a local reporter.
Seán Moran saw Galway hang on for a narrow win over Tyrone, while Paul Brennan was in Tralee to see David Clifford working his magic yet again. And Malachy Clerkin was in Croke Park on Saturday where Con O’Callaghan sparkled at full forward for Dublin, an emotional manager Dessie Farrell speaking after about the loss of selector Shane O’Hanlon who died last week.
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In rugby, Gerry Thornley has an update on Ireland’s preparations for Saturday’s Six Nations meeting with Wales in Dublin, Hugo Keenan’s knee injury the most pressing concern. And we have reports from all the province’s URC games over the weekend, Nathan Johns at the RDS to see Jamie Osborne shine for Leinster in their big win over Benetton. Connacht had a rare triumph over Cardiff in Arms Park, Munster, away to Scarlets, had their first victory on the road, but a last minute drop goal saw Ulster fall to a 19-17 defeat to Ospreys.
Also in rugby, Denis Walsh writes about the BBC’s three-part series Slammed, the latest episode focusing on the 1980s. Changed times since then. “It is easy to forget what the landscape of rugby was like before the game turned professional, before there were World Cups, before the European Champions Cup, before it became a weekly, year-round staple of live TV. In the northern hemisphere the rugby season revolved around it. For glamour and status and attention, no other rugby competition [the Five Nations] was in the same galaxy.”
TV Watch: Hockey fans can tune in to Ireland’s FIH Pro League game against the Netherlands, the world’s top ranked side, on TNT Sports 2 at noon today, while later you can catch up on the weekend’s Gaelic football (TG4 8.0) and rugby action (RTÉ 2 8.0). At the same time, Everton and Crystal Palace square up in the Premier League (Sky Sports, 8.0).
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