By his own unfailingly lofty standards, Daniel Wiffen finishing some 12 seconds outside the 1,500m freestyle world record may have felt initially underwhelming, but the Armagh swimmer quickly realised some proper context.
The men’s 1,500m freestyle world record has only been broken four times in the last 30 years, Sun Yang from China lowering it twice, clocking 14:31.02 to win the London Olympics in 2012, before Bobby Finke from the US improved that mark to 14:30.67 to win gold at the Paris Olympics, where Wiffen won bronze.
In the final session of the 2025 Irish Open Swimming Championships, staged at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, Wiffen, the Olympic 800m freestyle champion was once again the star attraction, and made no secret of his desire to add another world record to his name, having set the short course 800m mark in 2023.
In the end, Wiffen’s finished in 14:42.71, some eight seconds short of own Irish record of 14:34.07, set when winning the gold medal at the World Championships in Doha in February 2024. Twin brother Nathan finished second in 15:15.57, with Denis O’Brien third in 15:22.18.
Ken Early: The future of Real Madrid is suddenly uncertain
Irish player tracker: Mark McGuinness shows grit, leadership and class for Luton Town
Leitrim’s spirited defeat to Mayo treated with glee compared to glory days of the 1990s
No magic for Carlo Ancelotti as Real Madrid fail to come back against Arsenal
Wiffen’s 14:42.71 was a championship record, and the second fastest time in the world this year. It completed a triple-crown of titles for Wiffen, who also secured three qualifying times for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore in July.
“I’m very happy with it, 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,” said the 23-year-old Wiffen. “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.
“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. People are turning up to watch swimming and it’s great to see and I’m just happy people love the Olympics so much that they just keep wanting to watch swimming for the next four years.”
On Monday, Wiffen swam 3:46.87 in the 400m freestyle final; 24 hours before that he won the 800m freestyle in 7:41.52, a new championship record and the lead in the world rankings in 2025 – also just three seconds off his European and Olympic Record of 7:38.19.
Danielle Hill, who had already achieved consideration for the World Championships earlier in the week, set a new championship record in the final of the 50m backstroke. The Paris Olympian clocked 22.85 just outside her own Irish record of 27.64 and inside the championship record of 28.11 that she set in 2023. Silver went to National Centre Limerick’s Maria Godden (29.22) and bronze to UCDs Jena Macdougald (29.24).
Hill was back in the pool soon after to claim her second gold of the day in the 50m Freestyle, clocking 25.44.
Ellie McCartney also set a championship record of 2:24.35 in the semi-final of the 200m breaststroke on Tuesday night, then swam her second fastest time ever, to win her first gold medal of the week in 2:25.01.
Evan Bailey added the 100m freestyle gold to the 200m freestyle gold he had won earlier in the week, in a best time of 49.15. The women’s 200m freestyle title went to Victoria Catterson for the fourth year in a row. Catterson won out in 2:00.99 ahead of Ards’ Grace Davison (2:02.84).
Bangor’s Adam Bradley collected the 50m breaststroke gold medal in 28.55 ahead of Athlone’s Christian O’Brien (28.75)
