Wiffen wins third European medal with 800m bronze

Daniel Wiffen put in a strong recovery to claim a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle final at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Poland.

Team Ireland’s Wiffen, who holds the 800m short course world record from 2023, was sixth at the halfway point of the race.

However he rallied to battle back up the order and claim his third medal of the championships.

The race was won by Hungary’s Kamil Sarkany, who Wiffen pipped to gold in a thrilling 1500m final on Thursday, while Lucas Henveaux of Belgium was second.

The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle behind Jack McMillan to open his championships.

It is a strong return to form for Olympic 800m champion Wiffen, who had surgery in August after a bout of appendicitis ruined his chances of retaining his 800m and 1500m World Championship gold medals.

In Saturday’s decider, he started well in the race and was second in the opening 200 metres but he soon dropped back to sixth as he struggled to stay with the pace.

“I’m very proud of myself about how I came back but I’m not very happy with how I lost my race,” Wiffen said.

“As soon as I dived in, I knew I was going to be tired from the rest of the week.

“I’ve come through a lot over the past couple of weeks, so I’m happy with the bronze and I’m still on the podium.”

In the women’s 200m individual medley, Ireland’s Ellen Walshe picked up a silver medal as she finished behind the Netherlands’ Marritt Steenbergen.

Walshe was 2.95 seconds behind Steenbergen, who set a new European record with a time of 2:01.83.

It was a fifth medal of the championships for Ireland after Wiffen’s trio and John Shortt’s gold in the men’s 200m backstroke.

Anastasia Gorbenko of Israel was third as Great Britain’s Freya Colbert and Katie Shanahan narrowly missed out on a medal as they finished fourth and fifth.