800m champion Daniel Wiffen through to the 1500m final at World Aquatic Championships but cuts it fine

The 22-year-old Armagh swimmer conserved his energy in today’s semi-final, but he cut it fine.

Even though he won his heat in 14:54.29, he was just eight-tenths of a second inside the top eight who qualified for Sunday's final (4.15). He will be the sixth seed in the final.

Speaking after the race, Wiffen said: "I’m good, I tried to take it as easy as possible and just pace it to get back. I’m in sixth position going in, I could have missed it by .8 there, so I’m pretty happy with that. I did what I wanted to do, it was fun for me."

He said he knew exactly what he needed to do going in the final heat of four. “I knew exactly my pace. I think I’m getting quite good at hitting a certain pace in training and my warm-up. I knew what was going to make it back. To be honest, it’s faster than what I thought was going to make it back, but I’m just happy to be on the right side of it.”

On tomorrow’s final, Wiffen said: “I’m just going to try and go in with the same attitude, pace it how I want to pace it, post a good time and hopefully get on the podium.”

Daniel Wiffen on breaking the world record and his hopes for Olympic glory

Wiffen is the European short-course gold medallist in the event and finished fourth in the 1500m final at the World Long Course (50m) Championships in Japan last year. The Magheralin man has a best time in the event of 14:34.91. It will be his third final in Doha, having also swam in the 400m freestyle decider.

On Wednesday, Wiffen became the first Irish swimmer to win a medal at the long-course World Championships.

The big news from the heats was the failure of defending World champions Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia to make the final after finishing 17th fastest in 15:09.02. He also failed to qualify for the 800m final.

In the absence of the other 1500m medallists from last year’s championships, Bobby Finke (US) and Samuel Short (Australia), Wiffen has a decent chance of winning a second gold medal tomorrow.

After a fifth-place finish in the 200m breaststroke final on Friday night, her second fifth place of the week, Mona McSharry was back on the blocks for the 50m breaststroke heats. The 23-year-old touched second in her heat in 30.72 and progressed to this afternoon’s semi-final ranked seventh.

Speaking after the race, the Sligo swimmer said: “I’m happy with that, that’s a good morning swim. I think there’s room to improve for sure, but coming off the 200m is never going to be easy, so it’s a good starting point.”

On the quick turnaround from Friday night’s final, McSharry said: “I think it’s all about preparation in the warm-up and making sure you’re moving on from last night and just moving forward and focusing on the future. I think I did a good job, so hopefully, I can go faster tonight.”

The 50m breaststroke semi-final will take place today at 4.25pm (Irish time).

Erin Riordan closed out her championships with a first individual race at world level in the 50m freestyle, clocking 26.26.