{"id":215606,"date":"2025-12-04T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/215606\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:08:09","slug":"daniel-wiffen-wins-gold-medal-in-1500m-freestyle-at-european-championships-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/215606\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Wiffen wins gold medal in 1,500m freestyle at European Championships \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now the comeback is complete, Daniel Wiffen<\/a> defending his 1,500 metres freestyle title in thrilling style on day three of the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t all straightforward but Wiffen demonstrated all his experience and power to blast past Hungary\u2019s Zalan Sarkany in the last 100m.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo happy, I went through so many emotions in that race,\u201d said Wiffen. \u201cAt the start I was feeling really rough, I was like \u2018I hope I can stay this pace\u2019, and I got to 800m and thought I was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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\u2019ve put into this, and glad it came out. I can\u2019t describe how I did that, it was all just in my head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to give up without a fight, and I just had enough energy left to hammer it through to the end. I\u2019ve lost one title, defended one, and I still have one more [in the 800m].\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Daniel Wiffen on his way to winning a gold medal. Photograph: Andrea Masini\/Inpho <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 the same time as Kamil Sieradzki from Poland, who also delighted the home crowd with his bronze.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was in with a chance, but wanted an international podium so bad, so to finally do it is an incredible feeling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll start Friday\u2019s final as the fastest qualifier.<\/p>\n

John Shortt<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 also well inside the Irish junior record of 50.78 he set two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

That ranks him eighth going into Friday\u2019s final, and he\u2019ll start in an outside lane, but he\u2019s still in with a chance. \u201cTonight was just about getting the job done, and I know I can work on some improvements for tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a very different race, but I know I can be competitive, it\u2019s all very close for the medals.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ellen Walshe<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now the comeback is complete, Daniel Wiffen defending his 1,500 metres freestyle title in thrilling style on day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[115942,18,115944,19,17,115943,132,10905],"class_list":{"0":"post-215606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-daniel-wiffen","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ellen-walshe","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-john-shortt","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-swimming"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115663110940447403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}