'I’ve come through a lot' - Magheralin's Daniel Wiffen wins bronze with European medal tally three for Olympics hero
Magheralin’s Daniel Wiffen pushed his medal tally to three in Poland with bronze across the European Short Course Swimming Championships.
The Team Ireland competitor – winner of gold and bronze at the Olympics Games last summer – entered Saturday’s 800m freestyle final having previously won gold (1500m freestyle) and bronze (400m freestyle) across the week.
A world champion over the 800m short course distance from 2023 in 7:20.46, Wiffen hit the halfway point sitting sixth before a surge up to podium success in 7:30.14.
Hungary's Kamil Sarkany and Lucas Henveaux of Belgium finished in front of Wiffen, with the latter up to second entering the closing 50 metres before dropping down for bronze.
“I do think that swim showed the training be honest, because I was on my arse on the start of that,” said Wiffen on the official Swim Ireland website. “But you know, I was happy I was able to come through it at 400, but I had to kill myself to do it basically.
"So I’m very proud of myself and how I came back but I’m not very happy with how I’ve lost that race.
“To be honest, I mean, I’m the world record holder in this event, like they were six seconds over my best...but, for me, my race was going by my race plan.
"But as soon as I dived in, I knew I was going to be tired from the rest of the week, like, I’ve come through a lot for the past couple of weeks, so I’m happy with the bronze.
"I’m still on the podium, which is a massive bonus and I won the other day, so we can’t complain.”
Wiffen – who had surgery in August following appendicitis – lost the 400m freestyle final to another Northern Ireland swimmer, Jack McMillan of Team Great Britain.