Now the comeback is complete, Daniel Wiffen defending his 1,500 metres freestyle title in thrilling style on day three of the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland.
This was Wiffen back to his absolute best. After winning bronze in the 400m freestyle on Tuesday, the Armagh swimmer made clear of his intentions to leave Lublin with at least one gold. It wasn’t all straightforward but Wiffen demonstrated all his experience and power to blast past Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany in the last 100m.
Sarkany had set the pace from the go in the 60-length race, Wiffen swimming alongside up to halfway before Sarkany edged in front, moving two seconds clear at the three-quarter mark.
Wiffen still had something in reserve, drawing level with around 100m to go, before making his bid for glory, winning in 14:13.96, the fastest time in the world this year by 10 seconds. Sarkany held on for silver in 14:15.51, with Florian Wellbrook from Germany third in 14:19.26.
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“So happy, I went through so many emotions in that race,” said Wiffen. “At the start I was feeling really rough, I was like ‘I hope I can stay this pace’, and I got to 800m and thought I was done.
“But the gap was still close enough, that I knew when I got to 300m I could hammer the last 200m. That finish just showed everything I’ve put into this, and glad it came out. I can’t describe how I did that, it was all just in my head.
“I wasn’t going to give up without a fight, and I just had enough energy left to hammer it through to the end. I’ve lost one title, defended one, and I still have one more [in the 800m].”
It’s just three months since the 24-year-old underwent surgery on his appendix, with Wiffen also recently moving to a new training base in California. The Olympic 800m champion made his first big breakthrough in the 25-metre pool in Otopeni, Romania two years ago, winning the 400m-800m-1,500m treble.
Evan Bailey later produced the best swim of his career to win a tied bronze in the 200m freestyle final, coming through from lane one to snatch third in 1:41.48 – the same time as Kamil Sieradzki from Poland, who also delighted the home crowd with his bronze.
Britain’s Duncan Scott took the win in 1:40:54, but this was a massive breakthrough for Bailey, the 20-year-old Limerick-based swimmer from Wexford, who is set to start at the University of Texas in January.
“I knew I was in with a chance, but wanted an international podium so bad, so to finally do it is an incredible feeling,” he said.
Following her eighth-place finish in the 100m breaststroke final on Wednesday night, Ellie McCartney was also back in the pool and cruised into the 200m breaststroke final, smashing her Irish record to win her semi-final in 2:18.81. She’ll start Friday’s final as the fastest qualifier.
John Shortt had little time to rest on his first gold medal win, with the 18-year-old from Galway back in the pool on Thursday in the 100m backstroke.
Shortt won gold in the 200m backstroke on Wednesday evening, setting a world junior record to boot, and after coming through his morning heat, managed fourth in his semi-final in another Irish senior record of 50.16 – also well inside the Irish junior record of 50.78 he set two weeks ago.
That ranks him eighth going into Friday’s final, and he’ll start in an outside lane, but he’s still in with a chance. “Tonight was just about getting the job done, and I know I can work on some improvements for tomorrow,” he said. “This is a very different race, but I know I can be competitive, it’s all very close for the medals.”
With his 1:47.89 in the 200m backstroke, he became the first Irish swimmer to set a world junior record, which is for swimmers up to age 18 in the year of competition. Shortt turns 19 in February.
Ellen Walshe also went in the final 100m individual medley final, finishing seventh in 58.62, with victory there going to the Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergin in a championship record of 56.26. Walshe still has two more events to come.
After Eoin Corby secured his first semi-final of the week in the 200m breaststroke, just two hundredths of a second outside his Irish record, he bowed out in eighth place, improving his Irish record to 2:05.89.
