2026 IRISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS & COMMONWEALTH GAMES TRIALS
- Wednesday, April 8th – Sunday, April 12th
- The Aurora Sports & Leisure Centre
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Live Results
Unfortunately for Daniel Wiffen fans, the 25-year-old Irishman fell short of his goal time once again, this time in the men’s 800m free.
Racing in the final of the event at the 2026 Irish Open Championships and Commonwealth Games Trials, Cal’s Wiffen stopped the clock at 7:58.08.
Although it dominated the domestic field, it fell well short of the 7:42 goal he stated in an interview with BBC last week.
Twin brother Nathan Wiffen was the silver medalist in tonight’s contest in 8:12.68, while Liam Custer, a former U.S. National Age Group Record holder, captured bronze in 8:17.36.
Olympic finalist Ellen Walshe captured her fifth naitonal title of the week, owning the women’s 200m IM event this evening in a mark of 2:13.51.
That gave her the gold a hair ahead of Ellie McCartney who settled for silver in 2:13.57, followed by Maren Clayton Byrne who rounded out the podium in 2:19.33.
As for Walshe, this 2IM is added to the 100m fly, 200m fly, 400m free and 400m IM titles the former University of Tennessee ace already claimed here in Uster.
Walshe told Swim Ireland post-race, ‘It’s been a great meet, it’s great to be up here (in Bangor), I think we’ve had a fantastic meet, myself and Templeogue, it’s been great to be here.’
Additional Notes
- The women’s 1500m free saw British swimmer Fleur Lewis soar to the wall first in 15:54.50, although Clare Custer was immediately beind in 16:54.77. Eva Hand of host city Bangor was next in line, clocking 17:51.01 for the bronze.
- Irish naitonal record holde and Olympian Danielle Hill proved too quick to catch in the final of the women’s 50m free. The 27-year-old Larne swimmer stopped the clock at 25.27 to claim the top spot. Grace Davison settled for silver in 25.49 and Rosalie Phelan earned a 3rd-place finish in 25.56.
Seems like this was a bad experiment for both sides.
Hoping Durden locks in focus on the college team (and Cal graduate pros) after this. I’d much rather see the men’s college team return to its annual top-2 finish than train pros with no connection to the school.
Brooks Curry – you’re still cool and can stay. But time to shut the doors again, Dave.
From my memory, there’s been 3 on the guys side. Brooks, Hunter, and Wiffen. 2 weirdos and Brooks
Hunter was a bit of a special situation considering he moved over with his coach (Bowe). But then he stuck around for a couple years after, which was strange
Yup.
lets be honest. I am sure Durden wanted him to swim NCAAs and it did not work out… same thing with curry
Possibly. But this seemed like a Marsh special all the way.
Hoping they re-focus their recruiting efforts on 4 year kids vs. pros now that he has moved on.
Quit chasing one semester rentals and go get Julian Koch and Shareef Elaydi.
Am I the only person who closely studies the banner pic and thinks “Too much Guinness”?
He got one option to save his career: go get abused by Philippe Lucas in France. It’s the reality check he needs and I seriously think he can be repeat olympic champ in LA if he does it.
Go train with Luka in Pleasanton, it’s closer to Cal than Ireland.
Damn, swimswam isn’t holding back on the headlines lol. But tbh he’s kinda brought the heat on himself, throwing his team under the bus!
Also didn’t he say something like the guys at Florida weren’t on his level in training although they have faster times than him and have beaten him? Or did I hallucinate that.
I don’t remember that quote. He said that he didn’t think the Florida training group would hold together, but I don’t recall anything about them not being on his level.
I couldn’t find the podcast where he said it, but I recall it was the same one where he talked about that. I found a horrendous website that proved to myself I wasn’t completely crazy lol.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/daniel-wiffen-explains-decision-not-35713356
“So for now, I like training with people who can push me in different ways. Realistically, nobody’s going to be able to push me – not even my rivals, I doubt they’ll be able to push me on the heart rate side of swimming, long reps kind of stuff.”
To be fair he’s saying it in the context of thinking he wants to be pushed on speed, but he wasn’t at near the top for the 800 or 1500 during this time either.
I think you’ve misunderstood slightly.
He says he didn’t want to go to Florida because he didn’t want to train with his rivals. Then he says he’s not pushed by people in England as a separate statement.
He never says or implies he wouldn’t be pushed by the Florida guys. He explicitly says Florida is the number 1 distance group.
Eh… he says he doesn’t think anyone could
push him, even his rivals. This is immediately after calling the swimmers at Florida his rivals.
He said he didnt think the group at Cal would hold together and said he didnt want to train with his rivals in florida
This guy has a track record comparably bad to JD Vance
Irishmen shouldn’t have gone to NorCal.
Anthony Nesty is laughing at him rn