Daniel Wiffen relief as Irish ace has opportunity to defend world title

July 29, 2025

Daniel Wiffen breathed a sigh of relief after narrowly qualifying for the men’s 800m freestyle final tomorrow.

The Irish World and Olympic champion has been far from his best in the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, but still has the opportunity to leave with glory.

Following Tuesday morning’s heats, Wiffen finished fifth in heat two and, following a nervous wait, qualified for the final with the slowest time.

Wiffen touched the wall in 7:46.36. In comparison to his gold medal performance last year, he is around six seconds slower.

The 24-year-old, who is looking to defend his title, will go off in lane eight. It’s a welcome boost for Wiffen, who failed to qualify for the 400m freestyle final.

Speaking after the heat, he said: “Obviously pretty disappointed with the overall swim of the 800.

“But we’ve got a lane, so we’ve got a chance to defend my title, and I’m going in with that mindset that I can win this still, even though I’m eighth in.”

Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen @WiffenDaniel has QUALIFIED FOR THE FINAL of 800m Freestyle at World Aquatics Championships! Recovering from an appendicitis he made 7’46″36 to take the last spot.

In 200m Butterfly Jack Cassin has finished 20th with 1’57″08.#Swimming ‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/LUe38qLCEY

— IrishSportPower (@IrishSportPower) July 29, 2025

Daniel Wiffen searching for answers

It’s been a tough few days by Wiffen’s standards. After failing to qualify for the 400m final he said: “I just feel really weak at the moment.

“I felt it in the 400m and then I felt it in the 800m free, so something’s going wrong, I just need to figure out what it is and then change it for tomorrow night’s final.”

A few days ago, Wiffen confirmed in a blog post that he had recently been suffering from appendicitis.

He said: “So I had appendicitis about five weeks ago,” Wiffen revealed.

“Obviously I’m hopefully fully covered at this point, I’m not letting it affect me at this World Championships, I’m here to race and race fast.”

The Irish swimmers in action on Wednesday

Any Irish fans hoping to tune in will need to set their alarms for 3am if they want to catch the start of the action on Wednesday.

Danielle Hill, gold medal winner in the European Championship in Belgrade last year, will race in heat five of the women’s 50m backstroke.

Ellen Walshe will be hoping to book her spot in the semi-finals when she races in the second heat of the women’s 200m butterfly before Evan Bailey rounds off the Irish trio when he goes in the eighth heat of the 100m freestyle.