Twin brothers Daniel and Nathan Wiffen will lead the qualifiers for Wednesday's 1500m freestyle final after the duo eased through the heats on the penultimate day of competition at the Irish Open Swimming Championships at the NAC in Dublin.
Daniel Wiffen, Olympic 1500m bronze medallist from Paris, is targeting Bobby Finke’s world record which stands at 14:30.57. The American swimmer retained his Olympic gold in the long distance event last summer with Wiffen in third behind the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri.
"Everybody should come down to Dublin because I will be trying to break this world record that I've wanted to break ever since I started swimming," Wiffen said ahead of the Irish Open.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s final (4.15pm), Wiffen was more reserved in his ambition.
"I'm not sure how it's going to go to be honest, but I would love to get a personal best," he said.
"I don't want to break my streak of not breaking a PB at every major meet, so I'm pretty optimistic going into it.
"Sunday (for the 800 free final) was extraordinary. The place was packed out. I've never seen anything like before"
"I've been telling everybody to come for a long time. On the Late Late Show and everywhere I've been telling everybody to come and watch this championship.
"It was a great turn out (on Sunday) and it definitely made me want to go even faster in front of a home crowd like that."
Olympic finalist Ellen Walshe set a new Irish record in the 200m freestyle heats as the 23-year-old took over a second off her best time to come home in 1:59.31.
Walshe broke Victoria Catterson’s old record of 1:59.74 set in 2023 in the heats and then did it again in the semi-final registering a blistering 1.58.88.
Catterson won the first semi-final in 2.00.85 to nicely set up tomorrow’s decider at the NAC.
Walshe now owns five senior Irish long course records adding the 200m freestyle to the 100m and 200m butterfly and 200m and 400m individual medley.
National Centre Limerick’s Ellie McCartney continued her excellent form in winning semi-final two of the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2.24.35, which qualified the 20-year-old for the World Championships in July.
Tuesday evening’s session saw gold medals for Sundays Well’s Brandon Biss in the 200m backstroke decider, while his 16-year-old brother Leon T Biss won the junior final.
Visiting Estonian swimmer Gabriela Georgieva won the women’s 200 backstroke final, while 19-year-old Alana Burns-Atkin took the 100m butterfly title
The men’s 200m individual medley gold went to Adam Colgan.
