News

Morning Report – Wiffen Qualifies for Another Final in Poland; Walshe Secures Semi-Final Berth

Having won 1500m Freestyle gold on Thursday night, European Champion Daniel Wiffen was back in action in the 800m Freestyle on Friday morning, securing his place in Saturday’s Final and an opportunity to defend the title he won in 2023.

Wiffen, the World Record holder in the event in 7:20.46, clocked 7:34.60 in this morning’s heats, placing second in his heat and fourth overall. Germany’s Johannes Liebmann is the top seed for the final after he set a new World and European Junior Record of 7:30.94 in the second heat. Of the eight qualifiers for the Final, six came from Wiffen’s heat.

Ellen Walshe will join Ellie McCartney (200m Breaststroke Final) and John Shortt (100m Backstroke Final) in action in Friday’s Final session after she cruised into the semi-final of the 200m Individual Medley, winning her heat in 2:09.21 and progressing sixth overall.

Thursday night’s 200m Freestyle Bronze medallist Evan Bailey was the quickest of a quartet of Irish swimmers in the Men’s 100m Freestyle Heats. Bailey posted a lifetime time best of 47.53, bettering his 47.86 from 2023.

Bailey spoke after the race “I’m happy enough with that, even if I don’t make it back, I’m happy with a new personal best. To come back and swim that off the back of last night, it was a bit of a sleepless night.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, it’s a bit of a crazy feeling, it feels a bit like a dream and hasn’t really happened – it was probably one of the best moments of my life.”

Also, in the 100m Freestyle, Cormac Rynn knocked half a second off his best time of 49.61 clocking 49.02, while Matthew Hamilton was home in 49.80 and Adam Bradley in 50.02.

In the Women’s 100m Freestyle Heats, Rosalie Phelan swam a personal best 54.16, knocking almost a second off the 55.10 she swam at the World Aquatics World Cup in October.

In the USA overnight, Mona McSharry got her long course (50m) season underway with a gold medal at the US Open in Austin. McSharry clocked 30.80 in the heats, lowering that to 30.48 in the final to top the podium. The Olympic bronze medallist will race the 100m Breaststroke on Friday.

Evening Report – Walshe Advances to Another Final in Poland; McCartney Fifth and Shortt Seventh in European Finals

Ireland’s Ellen Walshe has confirmed her place in the 200m Individual Medley Final at the European Aquatics Championships (25m) while Ellie McCartney was fifth in the 200m Breaststroke Final and John Shortt seventh in the 100m Backstroke Final in another new Irish Record.

Walshe was impressive as she won the first semi-final of the 200m Individual Medley on Friday night in Poland. The Templeogue swimmer lowered her heat time of 2:09.21 to 2:06.63 to win her heat and secure automatic qualification for Saturday’s Final, where she will join Daniel Wiffen (800m Freestyle Final) in action.

Walshe was third after the butterfly and backstroke legs of the race, moving into second after the breaststroke and then surged to first over the last twenty-five metres of freestyle. Great Britain’s Freya Colbert (2:06.42) and Katie Shanahan (2:06.57) rank top two for the final with Walshe third and only .21 of a second separating the trio.

Walshe spoke after the race, saying, “I was just looking for kind of the top two, just to put myself in a nice position for tomorrow night, there’s a lot of fast swimming to come in that event, so it will be a good fight tomorrow.

“I think I’m used to coming into a meet and beinh straight off with a main event and that just wasn’t the case and it wasn’t the case on day two or day three. I think just building into day four and we still had another two days to go, which are main days for me. I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow morning (200m Butterfly) is as well, and tomorrow night will be a tough one with maybe the two of them together. We’ll just have fun and enjoy the meet.”

In the 200m Breaststroke Final, Ellie McCarney placed fifth in 2:19.90. The 20-year-old had entered the Final as the top seed in a best time of 2:18.81 and was disappointed not to have replicated that in the Final, saying, “I’m very disappointed, I’m not going to lie, my semi-final time would have got me a medal there, I know I have more in me, so I’m really disappointed, I thought I was doing better than that.”

Gold in the event went to Germany’s Anna Elendt in 2:18.16, silver to Great Britain’s Angharad Evans in 2:18.90 and bronze to Kotryna Teterevkova of Lithuania in 2:19.30.

200m Backstroke European Champion (25m) John Shortt swam his second final of the week in the 100m Backstroke. The National Centre Limerick swimmer had entered the final with an Irish Record of 50.16 from the semi-final, he lowered that time again placing seventh in 50.10.

Shortt has now set a World Junior Record, European Junior Record, Championship Record and five Irish Senior and five Irish Junior Records across four days of racing.

The 18-year-old spoke after the race saying, “I’m pretty happy with that, I would have probably liked to have been under 50, but, it’s been a massive kind of, I suppose it’s a massive week, so it can’t be perfect all the time and, I’ll give that record another crack at our short course (Irish Championships 12^th – 14^th December) in a few days’ time, so overall very, very happy.

“It’s been amazing. And I’ve loved every single minute of it. I think we have an incredible team out here, we really do, just all incredible individuals and as a team, I think we work pretty well together. So, a massive week and still a good few more swims left to go; it’s been really good so far.”

Italy’s Thomas Ceccon won the final in 49.29, with silver going to 200m Backstroke silver medallist Mewen Tomac of France in 49.46, while Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan won bronze in 49.68.

Shortt will be back in the pool on Saturday for the heats of the 50m Backstroke.

Also, racing on Saturday, Eoin Corby and Adam Bradley swim the 50m Breaststroke Heats, Rosalie Phelan competes in the Women’s 50m Freestyle Heats and Evan Bailey, Matthew Hamilton, Bradley, and Cormac Rynn in the men’s event, while Jack Cassin swims his main event, the 200m Butterfly.

Also in action at the Toyota US Open (50m) in Texas Mona McSharry won her 100m Breaststroke Heat and progresses second overall to tonight’s final in 1:07.07.

Day 4 Results – Friday 5^th December