2025 IRISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, April 12th – Wednesday, April 16th
- Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, Ireland
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile: Irish Open Championships 2025
The final night of action at the 2025 Irish Open Championships saw 24-year-old Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen roar his way to the wall for gold in the men’s 1500m freestyle.
Already having won the 400m and 800m distances at this competition, the Loughborough-based star produced a golden time of 14:42.71 to establish a new championship record.
Although his outing was off his lifetime best of 14:34.07 notched at last year’s World Championships, it was enough to dip under the 2018 record of 15:07.07 as well as the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard for the event.
Twin brother Nathan Wiffen, a Cal commit, reaped silver in 15:15.57 while National Centre Limerick’s Denis O’Brien collected bronze in 15:22.18.
Wiffen, who hasn’t been shy about his world record-setting goals, said post-race, ‘Amazing swim, I’m very happy with it.
“I would’ve liked my brother to have gone under the 15 minutes, but today wasn’t his day, so I’m sure he will have it in the future.
‘But mine, happy with the time, 14:42 is a world class time and it’s not far off of what won me the bronze medal in the Olympics, so I’m very pleased. It did hurt a lot, but it was worth it. Pretty solid times in all three (events), obviously came away with a gold medal and it was great to have such a lovely crowd cheer me the whole way.’
On what’s next for the Irishman, Wiffen stated, ‘Get a lot of training in, that’s the plan. I’ve got a lot of work to do, I’ve got a lot of ideas I want to do, and I’ve also got a big goal to win a couple of gold medals in the summer, so I’m going to work towards those goals and come away with a couple of medals.’
His effort rendered him the #2 swimmer in the world this season.
2024-2025 LCM Men 1500 Free
Wellbrock
14:36.25
| 2 | Sven SCHWARZ | GER | 14:36.82 | 05/04 |
| 3 | Oliver Klemet | GER | 14:39.03 | 05/04 |
| 4 | Daniel Wiffen | IRL | 14.42.71 | 04/16 |
| 5 | Dávid BETLEHEM | HUN | 14:48.73 | 04/09 |
26-year-old Danielle Hill also nabbed a new meet record, posting a winning effort of 27.85 to take the women’s 50m back.
That was within striking distance of her own national record of 27.64 and beat the former meet mark of 28.11 she put on the books 2 years ago.
Olympian Hill also topped the women’s 50m free podium, putting up a solid result of 25.44.
At the conclusion of the competition, Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd commented, ‘“Having completed five days of excellent racing, we can reflect back on some outstanding racing here in Dublin that gives us so much more to look forward to this summer.
‘With some fantastic young prospects breaking through into the senior ranks this week to join our established senior contingent, the World Championships in Singapore in July look very well set for Irish swimming.
‘When you see three Irish Senior and four Irish Junior records broken at this competition, it underlines even more that times are very good for Irish swimming and that we have already built on our success from the Paris Games.
‘We have a whole host of athletes to now consider for six National Teams this summer at age group, youth, and senior levels – so there is so much to anticipate for Irish swimming fans out there across June and July. Keep up the great work athletes and coaches – the big stages are ready for you”!’
“i remember back in the day thorpe this hackett that but biedermann bad” blah blah blah it’s 2025 the pajama era is over. swimmers can’t use a magic carpet anymore no crap the distance times have a lot of catching up to do. 14:42 is faster than i’ll ever swim and probably better than anyone in the comment section ever will either. great swim wiffen
U forgot to make your point.
The point is that half of the comments I’ve seen across the last week across SwimSwam distance swimming posts revolve around one of the following points:
Evidence: scroll down
Like, are we forgetting that Thorpe wore 90% of a Black Panther costume whenever he swam? Or that the “most remarkable part about the super suits was their finishing speed”? It’s stupid to see everyone calling 14:42 “washed” when the WR time difference of 12 seconds would convert to .48 for a… Read more »
the Thorpe suit hindered rather than helped, plus he went 3.41 in briefs.
But I love Wiffen. He’s good for the sport.
THIS^
This is the kind of delusion I’m referring to. Please tell me where he did this – I’ve seen him do a 3:41 in his cat-burglar suit, but not briefs. And how do we know it hindered him?
https://youtu.be/Jnz08P6sQEQ
A five second search gets you this.
I stand corrected – although searching “Thorpe 3:41.83” on Google didn’t return anything, so I’d like to know what engine you’re using.
People are talking about Wiffen just because he said he would break 3 world records, not because they think his times at these champs were bad
Damn, harsh comment section
welcome to swimswam, coleman roasted the commenters so hard when talking about Meehan on the pod last week
Holy mid, couldn’t even get #1?
Lukas Maertens clears unfortunately
Taking the index of improvement in the sprints and looking here the event could be 15-20 seconds faster. Let’s see it happen preferably by an Aussie
I’m sure all these guys need to break 14:30 is straight arm the last 50 /s
Need to be 1420 to 1420 mid for this event to move on. That is what Hackett was aiming for
So its ok for Hackett to aim for 14:20, and never going faster than 14:34 in 2001, but its not ok for Wiffen who also goes 14:34?
holy moly
So he wasn’t happy with his 7:41 but likes his 1500 time? The 7:41 is arguably the stronger swim.
Its not.
Hate to say it but I predict daniel wiffen does nothing incredibly insane the rest if his career
Agree. He already peaked.
That’s a safe prediction for most athletes, tho, even the already super elite ones.
So what if he doesn’t? He beat out two of the greatest distance swimmers of our time at the meet where it counts the most and won the ultimate prize. He could swim 8:00+ and 15:00+ for the rest of his career and still say he reached panicles higher than almost everyone. Why does everyone bash on this man for having lofty expectations for himself? That’s how goals work , you shoot for the stars , land on the moon and you’re still at a higher place than ground zero!!!
if bobby gets it right in LA he will be the real big boy of the long events
5 gold medals would earn consideration as male distance swimmer of the 2020s
Wouldnt 5 gold medals (including a 3 peat and a WR) earn certified distance goat? Or does he need to break the 800? Or are we all mature enough to admit that if he goes under 7:37.00 that’s pretty much a WR?
Speaking of 7:37… If Hafnoui could’ve made Paris happen… I think he’d be setting himself up for certified distance goat status. Ive never seen anyone race distance the way he did in 23. Admittedly I wasn’t around for Hackett and haven’t spent enough time with his footage.
Hackett was undefeated for 10 years I think. Won Worlds by 24 seconds. Did 14.34 in 2001. He’s the goat.
I agree on Hackett, he is the GOAT. During his era he was so far ahead of everyone else.
I also think he could have been undefeated for a little longer if not for the stilnox usage. He lost the 2008 Olympic 1500 final to Ous Mellouli (who to be fair swam great and had a good strategy). I had thought of Hackett as the favorite in that race, and it really looked to me like when Ous took off around 12 or 1300, that Hackett didn’t notice/respond until it was too late to catch up. Hackett’s time in the prelims would have won.
Is Hafnoui finished for good?
Then do it and learn what a proper six beat kick is.
He already is
He could get there for sure, but right now he’s not close to what Hackett accomplished. Has an argument for greatest right now, but of all time? Not yet.
Hackett failed the 3 peat at OG. If Finke gets it…? Undefeated 10 years vs showing up at the most important swim meet 3x in a row over 8 years? Tough call imo.
Is Finke really one of the greatest distance swimmers of our time? He gets lucky.
Don’t disagree with anything else you’ve said though.
I’d say Finke’s 1500 WR is no joke. That was a difficult record and he did it under the pressure of an Olympic final.
Lucky?? There is no luck in swimming
just wait til skinny boy gets some muscle
bobby has definitely above average muscle for a distance swimmer, maybe it’s the way