Nathan Wiffen and Shane Ryan Bring Curtain Down in Belgrade
ByEmma Porter |
A week laden with medals and final appearances across swimming and diving, the curtain came down on a historic 2024 European Aquatics Championships for Ireland, concluding with two final appearances on the last night of action in Belgrade, Serbia.
The medals in the pool were Ireland’s first at a senior European Championships (50m) since 2018, and a first-ever in diving at this meet. Ireland will return home with three medals across swimming and diving (one gold, one silver and one bronze) delivered by Danielle Hill (50m & 100m Backstroke) and Clare Cryan (3m Springboard). Across swimming and diving there were sixteen finals and nine semi-finals as well as two new Irish Records.
Saturday’s weather threw Nathan Wiffen’s schedule into disarray when he and his competitors were asked to stand down from the blocks before the 1500m Freestyle Final due to lightning overhead. Today Wiffen showed no sign of letting that affect his performance as he led the pack out in the opening laps with a fantastic display in Sunday’s final. Wiffen stopped the clock on 15:10.64 to finish fourth in Europe.
The Loughborough swimmer closed out his week with two European final appearances in what was just his second senior international meet.
Speaking after, Wiffen said, “I was actually quite surprised as I was leading for most of the race, I think it caught up to me as I was feeling it. I’m happy, I’ve equalled my time in the heats, I’m very happy with my second international. Just another year of training and I’ll probably be beating those guys out there.”
Shane Ryan was back in the pool following his scintillating performance in the 50 Freestyle on Saturday where he brought down the Irish Senior Record to 21.82. Ryan was in and out of the water in 22.17 to finish eighth in Europe.
Day 7 Results – European Aquatics Championships
Men 1500 Freestyle Final Nathan Wiffen H 15:10.01 (4) F 15:10.64 (4)
Men 50 Freestyle Final Shane Ryan H 21.82 (1) ISR SF 21.96 (4) F 22.17 (8)
