Updated at 17.55
IRELAND’S DANIEL WIFFEN finished seventh in the 400m Freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar today, while the relay team missed out on an automatic Olympic quota spot by three-hundredths of a second.
Wiffen was up against it with several of the world’s best to compete with and finished with a time of 3:46.65.
It was always going to be tough, however — even matching his personal best would only have been enough for a fifth-place finish.
Korea’s Kim Woomin ultimately triumphed with a time of 3:42.71. Australia’s Elijah Warrington (3:42.86) and Lukas Martens of Germany (3:42.96) took silver and bronze respectively.
“I wanted to make the final and I did think I’d be able to challenge for the podium, I am disappointed in the swim,” he said afterwards. “I tried to go out fast and I think I paid for it in the backend, I don’t really have that speed that they have from the 200m Freestyle, I’m coming down to it unlike the rest of them.”
Wiffen will return to action on Tuesday when he competes in the 800m Freestyle event.
‘I’m looking forward to getting back into what I like doing and that’s distance freestyle, so with 800m, I have a day off and need to get my recovery in, just bang out a solid 800m and try to get on the podium in that one,” he added.
Earlier, Wiffen comfortably secured a place in the final.
Ranked ninth going into the event, the Armagh native finished third in his heat and fourth overall with a time of 3:45.52, just outside his personal best of 3:44.35.
The 22-year-old, who won three gold medals last December and set a new World Record at the European Short Course Championships in Romania, said after his first swim: “I just went for the chill option, I didn’t want to go too fast, my goal was to try and make the final at this meet because I’ve never done this before, so I mean that’s what I did and I’m happy.”
Meanwhile, the Ireland Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay team narrowly missed out on qualification for the Olympics.
Erin Riordan, Grace Davison, Maria Godden and Victoria Catterson registered a time of 3:43.95 in this morning’s heats and finished 10th overall.
However, the previous time of 3:41.75, set by Riordan, Catterson, Mona McSharry and Danielle Hill from the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, initially was enough to keep them in 16th spot (the top 16 qualify for the Olympics).
Nonetheless, Slovenia successfully took the spot in tonight’s final with a time of 3:41.72, pushing Ireland down to 17th and just outside the Olympic quota place.
In addition, in the 100m Breaststroke, Darragh Greene was 20th overall, finishing with a time of 1:00.70, which left him just outside the semi-final places.
In the 50m Butterfly heats Shane Ryan narrowly missed his personal best time of 23.67, clocking 23.83 for 26th place overall.
Ryan will be back in action on Wednesday for his main event, the 100m Freestyle.
Mona McSharry, who has already qualified for the Olympics, is in action tomorrow in the 100m Breaststroke.
McSharry came fifth in last year’s final and is ranked second going into tomorrow’s heats.
Conor Ferguson and Maria Godden will also compete tomorrow in the 100m Backstroke.
