‘An Olympic Final plus the equivalent of two Semi Finals (Top-16 finishes) is outstanding for us, as is achieving five Irish Senior Records across seven days of racing,’ Jon Rudd
Team Ireland’s swimming team
completed their most successful Olympic Games in 25 years on Friday, signing
off from Tokyo 2020 in style as Daniel Wiffen smashed the Irish Senior Record
in the 1500m Freestyle with a time of 15:07.69, his second such Record of the
Games.
The 20-year-old from Magheralin had
set a new Irish Senior Record of 15:16.90 at the Irish National Team Trials in
April, days after qualifying for the Olympic Games in 800m Freestyle with
another new Irish Senior Record of 7:52.68.
Wiffen again set two new records at
the Games in these events, taking the 800m down to 7:51.65 and impressively
wiping nearly 10 seconds off the 1500m mark. Based iat Loughborough University,
Wiffen also won his heat in both events and moved up six places in the rankings
in the 1500m to finish 20th overall.
He said: “I loved it! It was a fun
race, I enjoyed it, taking it all in and got a nine second personal best time
as well!
“My target was to go and PB and try
and get closer to the 15-minute barrier. I’m obviously closer now, seven
seconds off. The tactic was just to get in, if there’s a racer, race with them.
If not, I had to assess it during the race and pick it up if I wasn’t going
fast enough.”
He added: “It’s been great! I’ve been
having so much fun here, I’m so happy to be here. Next, I’m definitely going to
have a long break, maybe go on holiday!”
Fellow Olympic debutant Danielle Hill
also finished her Tokyo 2020 campaign on Friday in the 50m Freestyle. She
posted 25.70 to be sixth in her heat and 33rd overall.
Hill said: “Although I may be the
fastest woman in Ireland, it’s a very different field out here. It was nice to
gain that experience. As I said before I went in, you sit in the house and you
watch the Olympics and this is the event that you want to do. It’s the one you
want to be successful in. I’m not quite there yet, but I can walk away with a
few things to improve and definitely looking forward to next year.”
The 21-year-old from Larne now looks
ahead to making her International Swimming League debut with multiple World and
Olympic Champion Katinka Hosszu’s Team Iron.
She said: “I just took a chance and
entered myself into the draft. I was so lucky to have two teams looking for me.
I decided to go with Team Iron because of the atmosphere that they create and
the guys that I will be training with as well – it’s going to be
phenomenal."
Speaking about her first Olympic
Games, she added: “I still don’t think it’s sunk in that I qualified six weeks
ago. It’s been a whirlwind experience, right from the Trials in April through
the Europeans and second Trials and now here. I don’t think I’ve had a chance
at any point to breathe and take a step back.
“For anyone who knows the journey I
have been on in the past two weeks just to get here and be standing is
something that I can be proud of. It’s been a great experience, and I can’t
wait for many more.”
National Performance Director Jon
Rudd rounded up a fantastic and historic week of racing with a number of
thoughts.
"This is our best Olympic
swimming result for a long time and I am extremely proud of these nine athletes
and all that they have achieved,” he said. “The staff here have been amazing in
preparing them across the course of three weeks and we also have to thank and
congratulate the coaches in the home programmes that got them here and helped
us en route.
“An Olympic Final plus the equivalent
of two Semi Finals (Top-16 finishes) is outstanding for us, as is achieving
five Irish Senior Records across seven days of racing. We had 15 swims in total
and in 13 of them, we rose through the rankings or held our pre-meet position.
It's all fantastic work from and within this team - and we are excited at what
this team can achieve in three years time when Paris comes calling".
Team Ireland’s aquatic attentions now
turn to diving, which begins on Monday when Rio 2016 Olympian Oliver Dingley
competes in the preliminary round of 3m Springboard and on Wednesday, Tanya
Watson becomes Ireland’s first ever female diver to compete at the Olympic
Games when she steps up for the preliminary round of the 10m Platform.
Notes –
This was Ireland’s largest ever
Olympic swimming team, with eight of the nine swimmers competing at their first
Olympic Games.
Ireland also fielded the first ever
men’s swimming relay team at an Olympic Games, and the first Olympic relay of
any kind in 49 years.
Irish Senior Records set at Tokyo
2020 (previous record)
Daniel Wiffen – 800m Freestyle –
7:51.65 (7:52.68)
Daniel Wiffen – 1500m Freestyle –
15:07.69 (15:16.90)
Mona McSharry – 200m Breaststroke –
2:25.08 (2:25.92)
Jack McMillan – 200m Freestyle – 1:46.66
(1:47.10)
Shane Ryan – 100m Butterfly – 52.52
(52.58)
Jessica Lamb Communications Executive
SWIM IRELAND
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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