World Aquatics Championships 2024: Daniel Wiffen claims Ireland's first world medal with victory in men's 800m freestyle
The 22-year-old surged in the final 100 metres to beat early leader Elijah Winnington, who finished in second. 2019 world champion Gregorio Paltrinieri was third.
Swimming
Daniel Wiffen has made history for Ireland at the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
The 22-year-old scored a win in the men's 800m freestyle on Wednesday (14 February), marking the first-ever swimming - or any Aquatics discipline - medal at a world champs for his country, clocking a 7:40.94 for the win.
Wiffen surged in the final 100 metres, overtaking Elijah Winnington of Australia and Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, who would finish second and third in times of 7:42.95 and 7:42.98, respectively.
Paltrinieri, 29, was the 2019 world champion in the 800m free, winning Olympic silver in the event at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
“I'm amazed to be honest. I really wanted to win this one,” a breathless Wiffen said post-race in a poolside interview. “[This was] my goal coming into this. I knew they [Winnington and Paltrinieri] would be coming from the outside lanes. I had to stick to my plan.”
He confirmed with delight: “It's Ireland's first World Championships medal.”
Sven Schwarz of Germany and Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary rounded out the top five.
In December, Wiffen set a new short course world record in the 800m at 7:20.46. He had been fourth in this race a year ago at the world championships.
Reigning world champion Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia failed to qualify for the final from the heats.
Daniel Wiffen: 'A gold medal makes it even sweeter'
It was an historic effort from Wiffen, who was buzzing after his win gave Ireland its first Aquatics Worlds medal.
"Coming away with a gold makes it even sweeter," he told Olympics.com "I'm just happy to be swimming for Ireland."
Winnington led for much of the first half of the race from Lane 1, with Paltrinieri, swimming in Lane 8, overtaking him at the 450-metre mark.
But Wiffen's kick was always coming, and he trailed Paltrinieri by just one second at the 700-metre mark before making his move. The Irish swimmer hopes this is a sign of things to come at this year's Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024.
"This is great. I'm using this as a test Olympics," he said. "I'm looking forward to it. I still have six months of work to do. There's still tweaks to make."
He said it's been a team effort among the Irish squad, which includes his twin brother, Nathan, who also swims the 800m freestyle.
"Maybe we're just sick not being in the top in swimming," he said of Team Ireland. "It's just infectious: Everybody has the same attitude, everybody wants to win that medal. No one wants to settle for fourth place."
Winnington's aggressive start was on purpose, the Australian being the world champ in the 400m in 2022 and claiming silver in that event this week in Doha.
"I just thought, 'What the hell?' I'll see how big of a lead I can get and if they chase me down, they chase me down," he told Olympics.com. "I wanted to leave it all out there and I was fortunate enough to" get silver.
"This isn't normally one of my main events. So I wanted to go out there and have a bit of fun," he said, then added: "I'm not in Olympic shape yet."