Daniel Wiffen may have woken up a world champion in Doha this morning, but the 22-year-old admitted the magnitude of his historic feat at the World Aquatics Championships on Wednesday had yet to sink in.
Wiffen claimed Ireland's first podium finish at the event when he grabbed gold in the 800m freestyle, clocking a time of seven minutes 40.94 seconds to finish ahead of Elijah Winnington of Australia and Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri.
The Magheralin, County Armagh man had finished fourth in both the 800m and 1500m events at the most recent World Championships last July - setting a European record of 7:39.19 in the 800m final - but travelled to Qatar with high hopes of a medal after claiming short-course 400m, 800m and 1500m golds in the European Championships in Romania in December.
Reflecting on what it meant to be crowned a world champion, Wiffen told listeners on RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "It's pretty amazing. I mean you dream of these things when you are younger and obviously last night it came true.
"I've a bunch of mixed emotions and waking up this morning, it feels pretty surreal."
Celebrations are on hold, with the 1500m freestyle next on the horizon.
"I'm racing again on Saturday in the 1500, so really it's just about recovery and trying to get on to the next race," he said.
A decorated competitor in recent years, Wiffen admitted that his latest medal was a little different to all the others, saying: "I have it at the end of my bed here. It's massive, it's the biggest medal I've ever got and it's very heavy.
"It's definitely a World Championships medal. You can tell that by the size of it. It's pretty cool.
"I think I was holding it for about an hour because so many people wanted photos with me with it.
"It took me a while to take it off. I had it around my neck for a long time because I was just taking in the moment. It's just amazing to say that I am world champion."
Proud parents Rachel and Jonathan were poolside for the biggest night in their son's life, with their presence making the occasion all the more special.
"They actually weren't going to come out to the World Championships because they wanted to save everything for the Olympics, but as a last-minute Christmas present I thought I'd get them tickets to come and pay for them to come because I wanted them to be here to witness this," Wiffen revealed.
"It just made it so much more special, to be honest, and I'm going to meet up with them later today.
"I just can't wait to see them as I knew how happy they were. They got to see some of my racing at the European Championships and they missed the world record so I'm happy they got to see me become world champion."
The gold medallist's twin brother Nathan is a recent convert to distance swimming, but has made giant strides in a short space of time.
The sibling rivalry seems to have spurred both onwards and Daniel is looking forward to the prospect of both featuring at the Paris Games this summer.
"Nathan was obviously really happy for me, but Nathan is becoming my rival, so I guess he was pinpointing different areas where I need to improve, but he was really happy," the Loughborough University student said.
"He's just started doing distance swimming and hopefully we're going to be at the Paris Olympic Games together.
"Who knows? 'Wiffen twins top in distance swimming', that would be pretty cool.
"Ater this competition, I'll take a couple of days off and then really reset and make sure I get my head down and really put everything into this final stretch to the Paris Games."
