Daniel Wiffen failed to fire in the final of the 400m freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships, finishing seventh in Doha.
Wiffen was looking to become the first Irish swimmer to win a medal at the World Championships, and while the County Armagh was fourth quickest in qualifying, he struggled to make an impact in a very competitive final won by South Korea's Woomin Kim.
The gold medal time of three minutes 42.71 seconds proved just too much for fastest qualifier Ellijah Wimmington of Australia, who took silver, just 0.15 behind the winner, while Germany's Lukas Maertens was third.
Wiffen's time of 3:46.65 was a full second slower than his time in the heats and two seconds off his personal best, and the Loughborough University student will now turn his attention to the 800m and 1500m freestyle event, with the greater tests of stamina set to play to his strengths.
Wiffen, who won three gold medals and set a new world record at the European Short Course Championships in Romania in December, said after today's final: "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.
"I tried to go out fast and I think I paid for it in the back-end. 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."
"I’m looking forward to getting back into what I like doing and that’s distance freestyle, so with 800m, I’ve a day off and need to get my recovery in, just bang out a solid 800m and try get on the podium in that one."
Following this morning's heats, Ireland’s women's 4x100m freestyle relay team sat in 16th place in the Olympic rankings, with Slovenia the only team that could knock them out of that final automatic spot achieved at the 2023 World Championships.
However, that's exactly what happened as they clocked 3:41.72 to beat the Irish mark by three-hundredths of a second.
An Ireland quartet comprising of Erin Riordan, Grace Davison, Maria Godden and Victoria Catterson finished 10th overall this morning in 3:43.95.
Darragh Greene, swimming the 100m breaststroke was 20th overall, after he touched the wall in 1:00.70, just outside the semi-final places.
In the 50m butterfly heats, Shane Ryan was just off his best of 23.67, clocking 23.83 for 26th place overall. Ryan returns on Wednesday for his main event, the 100m freestyle.
