When he made his Olympic debut in Tokyo as a 19-year-old, there was a notion among those who know their swimming that Daniel Wiffen was rather promising. When, two months ago, he smashed Grant Hackett’s 15-year-old 800m Freestyle world record, that notion looked well founded. When, on Wednesday, he only went and won gold at the World Championships in Doha, well, you’d have a notion that Paris can’t come soon enough. “Another small step for the 22-year-old from Armagh, another giant leap for Irish swimming,” as Ian O’Riordan writes.
Vikki Wall would be a bit ecstatic herself if she could make it to Paris too as part of the rugby Sevens’ squad, but it’s early days yet in the two-time All-Ireland winner’s transition to the sport, the Meath woman only making her debut last month. Wall talks to Johnny Watterson about her Sevens progress – and her hopes to pull on the Meath shirt again.
There’ll be no more pulling on of the Dublin shirt for Dean Rock after he announced his intercounty retirement last month. He talks to Gordon Manning about how he’s adjusting to life after a hugely successful career in that shirt, and about Dublin’s struggles in the league so far this year. Speaking of struggles. “The Kildare hurling and Gaelic football teams are pointless after two rounds of the league,” writes Ciarán Murphy. “Their camogie county board decided against entering a team in last year’s intermediate championship, and the women’s football county board executive resigned en masse last week. Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?”
In contrast, it’s been plain sailing for Ireland in the Six Nations thus far, John O’Sullivan asking Caelan Doris, who stepped in as captain in the absence of Peter O’Mahony last time out, if talk about a possible Grand Slam title is permitted within the squad. It is. “You obviously have your north star and that’s what we’re heading for,” he says.
Your complete guide to all the festive sporting action including TV details
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In athletics, Ian hears from Phil Healy, the former Irish sprint record holder who is hoping to put 18 months dogged by illness behind her. The toughest of spells it was too for the Cork woman, “there were plenty of tears along the way”, to the point where she considered calling it quits.
And in his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan tells us that “brawls at high school games are so commonplace in America now, they rarely cause any significant ripple beyond their own locality”. But one in Long Island last week certainly did. Why? Because it involved the daughter-in-law and granddaughter of the notorious godfather John Gotti grappling with a mother of a player on the opposing team, punching her and pulling her wig off. No, seriously.
TV Watch: Leona Maguire makes her second start of the season at the Aramco Saudi International in Riyadh (Sky Sports Golf, 10am-2pm), while Tiger Woods returns to action at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles, where Rory McIlroy and Séamus Power are also in the field (Sky Sports Golf, 3.30pm-1am). And there are a bunch of Europa League games on your screens today, including Feyenoord v Roma (5.45pm) and AC Milan v Rennes (8pm), both being shown by Virgin Media Two & TNT Sports 1.
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