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Paris 2024: Daniel Wiffen setting sights on 1500m world record

Updated / Saturday, 3 Aug 2024 16:04

Daniel Wiffen produced a dominant display on his way to winning his heat in the men's 1500m freestyle, posting a time of 14:40.34 to safely secure his place in Sunday's final, and immediately set his sights on a gold medal and a new world record.

In the third heat of four, Wiffen and Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri were swimming neck and neck early on, with the latter slightly ahead until the 800m mark. It was there where the 800m gold medallist exerted his class and powered clear.

And while Paltrinieri (14:42.56) eroded Wiffen's advantage over the final 200m, the Irishman comfortably held on to post a time that was over four seconds faster than Ahmed Jaquadi (14:44.20), who won heat four just ahead of the USA's Bobby Finke.

"I think so, I'm going to try, I really want to break [the world record]," Wiffen told RTÉ Sport after his heat. "If it’s tomorrow, it is what it is, but if it’s not… personally, if I’m going to win Olympic gold tomorrow I’m going to need to go sub-world record, so we’ll see…

"I'm 100% setting my sights on another gold medal, I’m not going to go in with a different goal. Now I’m Olympic champion, I have to aim for it again, I can’t really get worse than that in my head. So, get in, have a crack at it and see what we can produce."

The heat itself went pretty much as expected as far as Wiffen was concerned. The ultra-confident Armagh man was never out of his comfort zone.

"At the start, I felt a little bit of fatigue from the 800 but at the end I was flying and I'd felt really slow," Wiffen said. "I thought I was about five seconds slower than that on the overall time, so to look up and see 14:40 - that’s like a top-five time for me - is pretty special.

"I’m not going to lie, [Paltrinieri] holds a good pace, I was just like 'I’ll stay with him and when I get bored, I’ll go a bit faster’.

"At the end of it, I just went a smooth 10k pace. I felt pretty comfortable in the end. At the start, my heartrate was a bit high probably from just walking out in front of the crowd, there’s a lot more people here today than the other day.

"I just got settled into the pace and made sure I got the win.

"I’m going to go have a chat with my parents because I still haven’t seen them yet, apart from when I came off the medal podium, and then I will stay in bed all day, do a little swim tomorrow with [Swim Ireland Performance Director] Jon Rudd again – that was good luck – and then get ready for tomorrow night."

The medal race is scheduled for 6.35pm (Irish time) on Sunday.

Danielle Hill failed to make it through to the semi-finals of the women's 50m freestyle after clocking a time of 25.02.

This was not enough to see the Larne competitor through as one of the fastest 16 from the heats, finishing 21st overall.

Hill's heat was won by Shayna Jack of Australia in 24.38, with Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem clocking the fastest time overall with 23.85.

"I felt it was quite strong," said Hill of her heat. "I had another French in my heat so I got to experience that crowd again, which was really special.

"It was off my best but I'm racing against the fastest girls in the world."

The semi-finals take place from 7.40pm this evening.

There was no joy for the Ireland in the 4x100m medley relay squads in their respective heats, with neither making the finals.

The men's quarter of Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene, Max McCusker and Shane Ryan were placed sixth in their heat in a time of 3:33.81 - a new Irish record.

Ryan produced a strong freestyle leg to ensure the Irish finished ahead of the Republic of Korea, with Spain disqualified.

The heat was won by the USA in a time of 3:31.62; Great Britain second in 3:32.13 and third went to Australia in 3:32.24.

Afterwards, Ferguson expressed some disappointment with his own display while all four competitors acknowledged the raucous Irish support from poolside: "Individually, my swim wasn't great, so I’m a bit disappointed in myself because I know if I got that right, we probably would be in a final," Ferguson told RTÉ Sport. "At the end of the day, it’s the Olympic Games, we’ve got a national senior record and it’s great to see the support from the crowd."

Green was proud to add to a memorable week for Irish swimming: "It's unbelievable, just to come out here on the second last day after the week we’ve had with Mona, Dan and the rest of the guys, it’s really given us a huge boost to come out here and do something.

"It’s so surreal, this is exactly what we’ve been building up to the whole time. It’s nearly a 'home’ Games for us, because of how close it is and the amount of support out there, there’s Irish flags everywhere."

McCusker agreed: "It was class, we've been waiting all week for that. We had a good time out there. The support in the crowd was insane – we took a minute afterwards to have a look and we could see so many Irish people. We all had a good time out there…"

Three-time Olympian Shane Ryan added: "It’s an absolute honour and a privilege to be here, especially with these boys, and also to get a national record – we all did our best there. The toughest part is actually getting here, and when we got here you just have to enjoy the moment and do your best for the boys and the country."

It was also a sixth place for Danielle Hill, Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe and Grace Davison, as they too were bumped up a place following the disqualification of Italy - and also posted a new Irish record.

Swimming the breaststroke leg, McSharry had Ireland briefly in third spot, this after Danielle Hill's opening backstroke. Ellen Walshe (butterfly) and Grace Davison (freestyle) swam the subsequent legs, as the team went on to post a time of 4:00.12.

After the heat - despite the playful protestations of her team-mates - McSharry indicated that Paris will likely be her final Olympic Games: "It's been unbelievable, I couldn’t have asked for a better week with all the training and dreams and knowing that this is most likely my last Olympics so I’m really happy to come away with a medal," she told RTÉ Sport.

"It was great, I couldn’t have asked for a better finish, we were all having a great time in the prep area this morning, just having a bit of fun. That was really nice and I need to be able to finish off the week regardless of what happened earlier and to get a new Irish senior record was great.

"It’s been great, honestly a rollercoaster. Some disappointing races but overall, I’m super happy and kind of sad that’s it’s over but excited to take a little break."

The heat was won by Canada in 3:56.10; USA second in 3:56.40, with Japan third in 3:56.52.

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