Swim Ireland Wiffen Second Fastest Qualifier into Freestyle Final

 

Daniel Wiffen is through to the 800m Freestyle Final while Victoria Catterson and Darragh Greene secured top twenty places in their events on the third day of racing at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar. Tonight, Mona McSharry competes in the final of the 100m Breaststroke.

Following a seventh-place finish in the 400m Freestyle on Sunday, this morning Daniel Wiffen secured a place in his second final, in one of his favoured events, the 800m Freestyle. Wiffen, who is the European record holder in the event in 7:39.19, touched second in his heat and ranks second overall behind Italy’s Luca de Tullio (7:46.42) in 7:46.90 ahead of tomorrow evening’s final.

Commenting after the race, the 22-year-old said ‘I did try not to go too hard, I mean it’s not a stacked field here, so doing the 800m is trying to go as slow as possible to still make it back. I knew it was going to be tight and I knew exactly what pace the others were going, so I didn’t want to leave it to chance in the heats, top two was what we wanted.’

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s final Wiffen said ‘I’m looking forward to it, getting into my preferred schedule now, the 800m and 1500m, so yeah I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a great race.’

The Men’s 800m Freestyle Final takes place on Wednesday at 4.02pm (IRL).

Victoria Catterson swam under the two-minute mark for the third time in her career in the 200m Freestyle heats. Catterson, who holds the Irish Record at 1:59.74, was right at her best, touching sixth in her heat in 1:59.75. The National Centre Dublin swimmer was nineteenth overall, moving up seven places in the rankings and breaking into the top twenty at a World Aquatics Championships for the first time.

Speaking after the race Catterson said ‘I just know that I’ve put everything into training the past while and I know I have so much better in me, it’s just frustrating to be on high 1:59s yet again, I’m so much better than that’.

Darragh Greene returned to the pool for his final individual event of the Championships, the 50m Breaststroke. Clocking 27.76, Greene was eighteenth overall, missing a semi-final place by just .14 of a second.

Mona McSharry will race the 100m Breaststroke Final at 5.45pm (IRL) this evening. McSharry, who was fifth in the 2023 edition of the Championships, is ranked second going into the final with the opportunity to win Ireland’s first World Aquatics long course (50m) medal. The 23-year-old won bronze in the short course (25m) version of the event in 2021.

Daily reports will issue from Doha.

Results Day 3

Men 50m Breaststroke  Darragh Greene 27.76 (18th)

Women 200m Freestyle Victoria Catterson 1:59.75 (19th)

Men 800m Freestyle Daniel Wiffen 7:46.90 (2nd)

 

Schedule – Day 3 Finals

Women 100m Breaststroke Final Mona McSharry 5:45pm (IRL)