Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen Falls Short Of 400 Freestyle Expectations

2026 IRISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS & COMMONWEALTH GAMES TRIALS

• Wednesday, April 8th – Sunday, April 12th
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The penultimate night of racing at the 2026 Irish Open Championships and Commonwealth Games Trials brought us a new national record in the men’s 200m backstroke.

We reported how 19-year-old World Junior Championships multi-gold medalist John Shortt ripped a lifetime best of 1:55.70 to clear the 1:56 barrier for the first time in his young career.

You can read more about Shortt’s impressive achievement here.

The men’s 400m freestyle tonight saw Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen get it done for gold, albeit in a time that wasn’t up to his desired predictions laid out ahead of this competition.

24-year-old Wiffen stopped the clock at 3:49.35. Although he represented the sole swimmer to delve under the 3:50 barrier tonight, Wiffen was well outside the mark of 3:43 for which he was aiming, as told to BBC last week.

With his 1500m free victory from night one also falling short of expectations, it would appear the Irishman will be leaving Cal to go back home, although we’ll wait on the ace’s official decision on this front.

In tonight’s race, Wiffen got to the wall in a very comfortable position ahead of twin brother Nathan Wiffen and Cormac Ryan, who touched simultaneously in 3:54.12 to become co-silver medalists.

23-year-old Jack Kelly completed his hat trick of breaststroke victories, hitting a time of 59.90 to take the men’s 100m sprint.

That earned him the sole sub-minute time of the field, as national record holder Darrah Greene was relegated to runner-up status in 1:00.60, followed by Adam Bradley, who claimed bronze in 1:00.81.

Kelly already produced a new national record of 26.84 in the 50m breast to kick off his campaign, and his effort tonight represents his 2nd-best time in the sprint. He now ranks just outside the list of top 15 men’s 100m breaststroke performers on the season.

Additional Notes

• Lottie Cullen proved too quick to catch in the women’s 200m back, putting up a time of 2:12.23 to grab the narrow victory ahead of Grace Davison. Davison settled for silver a hair behind in 2:12.37, as Maria Godden rounded out the podium in 2:14.94.
• Claiming her fourth victory of these championships, 25-year-old Templeogue swimmer Ellen Walshe nabbed the women’s 400m free victory in a time of 4:12.54. That gave her a healthy advantage over the field, with Fleur Lewis nabbing silver in 4:18.93 and Victoria Catterson also landing on the podium in 4:19.81, good enough for bronze.
• Olympic medalist Mona McSharry completed her trifecta of breaststroke victories tonight, hitting a mark of 1:06.27 to win the women’s 100m breaststroke. She got to the wall over a second ahead of the field, with Ellie McCartney logging 1:07.60 for silver and Eimear Doyle posting 1:10.52 for bronze.