Daniel Wiffen powers into 800m final at World Championships as Mona McSharry bids for gold

Mona McSharry will race the 100m Breaststroke Final at 5.45pm this evening. McSharry, who was fifth in the 2023 edition of the Championships, is ranked second going into the final with the opportunity to win Ireland’s first World Aquatics long course (50m) medal. The 23-year-old won bronze in the short course (25m) version of the event in 2021.

Following a seventh-place finish in the 400m Freestyle on Sunday, this morning Wiffen secured a place in his second final, in one of his favoured events, the 800m Freestyle. Wiffen, who is the European record holder in the event in 7:39.19, touched second in his heat and ranks second overall behind Italy’s Luca de Tullio (7:46.42) in 7:46.90 ahead of Wednesday evening’s final.

Commenting after the race, the 22-year-old said ‘I did try not to go too hard, I mean it’s not a stacked field here, so doing the 800m is trying to go as slow as possible to still make it back. I knew it was going to be tight and I knew exactly what pace the others were going, so I didn’t want to leave it to chance in the heats, top two was what we wanted.’

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 13th February

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s final Wiffen said ‘I’m looking forward to it, getting into my preferred schedule now, the 800m and 1500m, so yeah I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a great race.’

The Men’s 800m Freestyle Final takes place on Wednesday at 4.02pm.

Victoria Catterson swam under the two-minute mark for the third time in her career in the 200m Freestyle heats. Catterson, who holds the Irish record at 1:59.74, was right at her best, touching sixth in her heat in 1:59.75. The National Centre Dublin swimmer was 19th overall, moving up seven places in the rankings and breaking into the top 20 at a World Aquatics Championships for the first time.

Speaking after the race Catterson said ‘I just know that I’ve put everything into training the past while and I know I have so much better in me, it’s just frustrating to be on high 1:59s yet again, I’m so much better than that’.

Darragh Greene returned to the pool for his final individual event of the Championships, the 50m Breaststroke. Clocking 27.76, Greene was 18th overall, missing a semi-final place by just 0.14 of a second.