{"id":1115242,"date":"2026-07-28T01:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115242\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:21:36","slug":"northern-irelands-wait-for-commonwealth-games-gold-goes-on-as-wiffen-and-mcclenaghan-miss-out-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115242\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s wait for Commonwealth Games gold goes on as Wiffen and McClenaghan miss out \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland\u2019s wait for a gold medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games continues after Daniel Wiffen<\/a> suffered a second final disappointment 48 hours in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old claimed Olympic gold in Paris in the 800m freestyle, but he was squeezed out of a podium place at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre on Monday night as Australia completed a clean sweep of the medals.<\/p>\n

Having led an Aussie one-two-three in Saturday\u2019s 400m freestyle, Sam Short again proved too strong. On this occasion, Wiffen occupied the bronze medal position for much of the race behind Short and Benjamin Goedemens, before Matthew Galea surged through over the closing stages to snatch third from the Magheralin swimmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust, to be honest, I felt a bit off when I dived in and I was just trying to hold on,\u201d said Wiffen afterwards. \u201cIt was just too late when I actually started to feel good.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no, I can\u2019t really complain, I came fourth and I improved from the 400 freestyle. I\u2019ve another race to get it going in the 1,500 freestyle on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Short dominated from start to finish, as he had in the 400m. Wiffen was initially in his slipstream but was quickly overtaken by Goedemens, and the trio remained in that order for most of the race, although Wiffen lost ground on Short at each turn.<\/p>\n

Wiffen was expected to finish strongly, as he had in Paris, but instead Galea edged closer and closer before passing him just before the 600m mark.<\/p>\n

The Olympic champion rallied but, after Short claimed victory in 7:39.81 and Goedemens followed in 7:46.49, Galea held him off to touch in 7:47.10, with Wiffen fourth in 7:48.82, which was over 10 seconds off his personal best.<\/p>\n

Wiffen moved from Los Angeles to Dublin in April in a bid to rediscover the form that made him a double medallist for Ireland at the Paris Olympics in 2024, when he won gold in the 800m freestyle and bronze in the 1,500m freestyle.<\/p>\n

He was a Commonwealth Games silver medallist in 2022, when he finished second in the 1,500m freestyle in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

But now he is looking for a stronger performance in Wednesday\u2019s 1,500m freestyle final to salvage his week and insisted he was looking forward to his final event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am, I just hope I feel better than that and then I\u2019ll be golden,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just getting the feel back, obviously, it\u2019s what we need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d mainly put it down to my training in this block. That time can certainly be a bit faster, so we\u2019ll see what happens in the 1,500 and see if we can get after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RhysRhys McClenaghan of Northern Ireland in action during the men’s pommel horse final at the Glasgow International Arena on day four of the Commonwealth Games. Photograph: Owen Humphreys\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Earlier, there had also been disappointment for another Team Ireland Olympic gold medallist, Rhys McClenaghan<\/a>, who could only manage a sixth-place finish in the pommel horse final at the International Arena.<\/p>\n

Making his comeback at a major international event after undergoing shoulder surgery a year ago, McClenaghan was a hot favourite to medal. <\/p>\n

However, after his main rivals posted strong scores before the Newtownards gymnast took to the apparatus, he was unable to produce his best routine as Canada\u2019s Jordan Carroll claimed gold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s wait for a gold medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games continues after Daniel Wiffen suffered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[20295,1144,301747,16,15],"class_list":["post-1115242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-gymnastics","tag-northern-ireland","tag-rhys-mcclenaghan","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116994985829081416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}