Daniel Wiffen breaks European record but narrowly misses out on World Championships 800m freestyle medal

Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui secured gold ahead of Australia’s Samuel Short and defending champion Bobby Finke from the United States of America while Wiffen, who set a new European record time of 7:39.19, was just behind them.

It’s a remarkable improvement from the Magheralin native with this year’s result in Fukuoka four places and over 11 seconds better than what the 22-year-old produced in Hungary during the same event 12 months ago.

A number of records were broken in Wednesday’s finale with Short setting a new best Oceanian time, Finke a new American record 800m effort and Germany’s Lukas Märtens – who finished one spot behind Wiffen in fifth – posting a new national record.

Wiffen had already secured his 800m spot at the 2024 Olympics by recording a new Irish record of 7:43.81 in the heats and now looks ahead to the 1500m freestyle heats on Saturday.

"It was a good race, I'm really happy with the personal best and really looking forward to the 1500m freestyle later in the week, but that race was great to be part of," Wiffen told BBC Sport NI. "Missing the podium, you know, I came into this, and I just wanted to be better than last year, and I've done that by a lot so I'm happy enough.

"That was definitely one of the best races I've ever had, and I loved every minute of it, I'm looking forward to what's next.

"I said on poolside there that if I can take five seconds off my 1500m that I'm under the world record, so let's hope that happens."

Elsewhere, Larne's Danielle Hill made the 50m backstroke semi-finals.

"I'm a little bit deflated, I expected a little bit more of myself, I'm usually quite a good morning to afternoon swimmer but I think I've got to be positive with this, 48 hours ago I was in a much worse position,” she told BBC Sport NI. "I've got two more swims individually and I've got a relay and that backstroke has given me a bit of a confidence boost heading into Sunday (4x100m medley relay) with the girls, so yeah, disappointed, but happy to get that first semi-final under my belt."