Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen missed out on a medal in the men’s 400m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games as he finished fifth in the final at the Tollcross Swimming Centre.
Wiffen, who won Olympic gold in the 800m freestyle and 1500m bronze in Paris two years ago, qualified for the final after finishing third in his heat in his least favourite distance of 400m.
After a steady start in which he looked on course for a bronze, the 25-year-old faded away in the last 50m and clocked a time of 3:47.22.
“We always knew Sam [Short, race winner] would be really good in this, he almost broke the world record in this a few weeks go, so in my eyes it was a race to come second and I’ve never experienced a pool that wavy,” he told BBC Sport NI.
“I’m behind the two people that are fastest out and I’m the slowest out, I’m just getting hit in the face by the waves so for me it got to a point where I was just trying to find a way to get back in the race.”
His teammate, Olympic relay gold medallist Jack McMillan finished in seventh in a time of 3:49.18.
Wiffen will have another chance at winning a first Commonwealth Games gold after picking up silver in 2022 when he goes in the men’s 800m fastest heats at 20:37 BST on Monday where he will come up against Australia’s Short again.
“It’s going to be a good race and I’m going to be ready for it,” Wiffen added.
Lottie Cullen’s time of 1:00.82 helped her advance to Sunday’s final of the women’s 100m backstroke as fourth fastest in her heat.
Teammates Danielle Hill, who finished in 1:00.83 and Grace Davison, who recorded a time of 1:01.20 in their respective semi-finals both missed out on qualifying for the final.
Matthew Hamilton set a new Irish junior record but missed out on the men’s 100m butterfly semi-finals as he finished fifth in his heat in a time of 52.62.
It beats the previous record of 53.39 set by Evan Bailey.
Ellie McCartney missed out on the 100m breaststroke final as she finished fourth in the semi-final in a time of 1:08.63.
Leave a Reply