Daniel Wiffen tribute to Paris medal rivals as ‘two of the best ever’ after Olympics bronze
Magheralin's Daniel Wiffen may have missed out on a dream of double gold over the weekend but set aside any sense of disappointment to congratulate his medal rivals as "two of the best ever".
Having captured top spot last Tuesday night in the Olympic Games men's 800m freestyle final, Wiffen stepped on to the starter block on Sunday with expectations high for a second gold.
His assured display the previous day over the men's 1500m freestyle heats only served to confirm Wiffen's status as a serious contender for victory.
In the end, Bobby Finke of Team USA produced a blistering performance that grabbed gold on the night and a place in the world record books off 14:30.67. That performance put FInke out in front in the statistics, having improved on the record time of 14:31.02 set by Sun Yang across the London Games more than a decade prior.
Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri proved the sole serious contender to Finke in the Paris pool on his way to a blistering silver. Wiffen took time out of the post-final analysis to highlight the superb displays of those he looked up at on the podium.
"Absolutely, that record had stood for too long and I‘m happy at least one swimmer was able to break it," said Wiffen on BBC Sport NI. “I wish it had been me. Hats off to Bobby, he swam a great race, a great tactical race and that’s what the 1500m is all about.
"It's about tactics, and mine were wrong today, but I mean it's great to share the podium with two of the best ever swimmers.”
Wiffen highlighted following the heats how a record-breaking time may be required to secure final gold and outlined his ambition to target that place in the record books. However, he offered a fascinating insight into how the final developed.
“I thought coming in I was ready to win, dived in, I thought I had a great first 100 and then I thought I was in great position, ready," said Wiffen. "Then I get to 300 metres and I see a leg kick in front of me, a body over head, I'm like 'who's that?'
“I realised it was Bobby and I was like 'this is going to be painful' and I was fighting, fighting and then I realised about 300 left it was just too much to catch and then I just really tried to secure my bronze medal because I was hurting a lot.”
Wiffen's bronze moved the tally of medals by athletes from Northern Ireland up to seven across six milestone days in our country's sporting history, a run he sparked into life with the 800m triumph for Team Ireland. Jack McMillan (Team GB), Hannah Scott (Team GB) and Rhys McClenaghan (Team Ireland) followed Wiffen as delivering the gold standard alongside Rebecca Shorten (Team GB, silver) and Philip Doyle (Team Ireland, bronze).
“I really hope everybody sees what I've done this week and really looks to that as anybody can do anything," said Wiffen. "I was 12 years old and said that I want to be Olympic champion and world record holder. World record holder part, not yet, but I have the Olympic champion part.
“Unbelievable, I'm only 23, who knows what's going to happen in the future...I've got a long-term career ahead.”