Faraway, so close, Daniel Wiffen again touching home short of a first ever World Championship swimming medal for Ireland, finishing fourth after a thrilling 1,500m freestyle final at the Marine Messe Hall in Fukuoka, Japan.
It was the second fastest 1,500m in swimming history, arguably the most competitive ever, Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia adding a second gold medal after his 800m win, finishing in a championship record of 14:31.54 - only .05 ahead of the American Bobby Finke.
That sort of pace proved just a little too fast for Wiffen, who was unable to get himself into one of the medal positions once the Australian teenager Sam Short set off inside world record pace.
In the third of seven finals which wrapped up the 2023 championships, the eight-man race, after 30 lengths, came down to a flat-out sprint, Hafnaoui, just 20, getting the touch ahead of Finke, the 23-year-old double Olympic champion who produced an American record of 14:31.59 to win silver.
Then came Short in 14:37.28, still only 19, who had already won gold in the 400m freestyle. Wiffen never gave up the chase, but the Armagh man ultimately ran out of water to finish fourth in 14:43.01, the second fastest swim of his life, adding to his fourth place in the 800m freestyle final on Wednesday.
No Irish swimmer has ever won a medal at these long-course championships. One year out from the Paris Olympics, Wiffen, just turned 22, has made his medal prospects there perfectly clear, the young age profile of those around him proving they’ll be saying likewise.
“A bit of disappointment there, going in with the fastest personal best, and then coming fourth,” said Wiffen. “That’s just sport. I guess I just have to train harder and come back faster.
“I’ve got a vengeance now, because I wanted to win that race and I didn’t. I’m just going to keep training, I’ve got the European Under-23s in Dublin (next month) so I’m going to focus on that and post some fast times there and then next season just go for that gold in Paris.’
Short was clearly chasing the $30,000 bonus for breaking a world record, the mark of 14:31.02 still belonging to Sun Yang since the 2012 Olympics in London. That came before the Chinese swimmer was handed an eight-year ban in 2020 for interfering which a doping sample, a sanction that was later reduced to four years and three months on appeal.
Wiffen had produced a blistering 14:34.91 in April, back then knocking over 15 seconds off the Irish record of 14:51.79, that won him silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In one of the fastest 800m freestyle finals in swimming history on Wednesday, Wiffen also touched home in fourth, just half a second away from the bronze. His time there of 7:39.19 smashed own Irish record by nearly five seconds, breaking the European 800m freestyle record to boot. The same three 1,500m medal winners filled those podium spots too.
On Tuesday, Mona McSharry, also just 22, finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke, relegated from second inside the final 10m – just 0.13 of a second shy of bronze.
Earlier, Ireland’s women’s and men’s 4x100m medley relays both finished in 13th position in their heats, provisionally placing them within the 16 relay spots available for Paris 2024. Fukuoka is the first opportunity for relays to qualify for the Games, the second and final opportunity coming at the Doha 2024 World Championships in February, where relays can be moved up or down the rankings.
The women’s team of Danielle Hill (backstroke), Mona McSharry (breaststroke), Ellen Walshe (butterfly) and Victoria Catterson (freestyle) set a new Irish record when they combined for a time of 4:01.25. The quartet had held the previous standard of 4:02.93 from the 2021 European Championships.
Ireland’s men’s team of Conor Ferguson (backstroke), Darragh Greene (breaststroke), Max McCusker (butterfly) and Shane Ryan (freestyle) came home in 3:35.03 to win their heat, just 0.41 outside of the Irish record of 3:34.62 set in 2022.
Jon Rudd, national performance director and team leader for these championships, had high praise for the Irish performances.
“There are things we still have to improve on as a team, but there are many highlights for us to look back on, particularly in Daniel achieving a European record, our first ever in a long course pool,” he said. “We come away with three final positions, with our first female swimming final in nearly 30 years and only the second time we have ever featured in male swimming finals at this championships.
“Not only that, but three of our relays currently lie in the World Top-16 positions, giving us provisional Olympic berths at this point in time.”
Wiffen, John Shortt, McSharry, Ellen Walshe and Victoria Catterson now continue preparations into the inaugural European Under 23 Swimming Championships taking place on the Sport Ireland Campus, Dublin from Friday 11th – Sunday, August 13th.
