Stunning Silver and Brilliant Bronze for Walshe and Wiffen in Poland

It was a super Saturday for Irish swimmers at the European Aquatics Championships (25m) in Poland tonight as Ellen Walshe and Daniel Wiffen brought Ireland’s medal haul to six including two gold from Wiffen (1500m Freestyle) and John Shortt (200m Backstroke), a silver from Walshe (200m IM) and three bronze from Daniel Wiffen (400m Freestyle, 800m Freestyle) and Evan Bailey (200m Freestyle).

Walshe pulled off an incredible double as she claimed silver in the 200m Individual Medley and just thirty minutes later qualified for the final of the 200m Butterfly.

The Templeogue swimmer held incredible nerve throughout the medley race, she was sixth after the butterfly leg and turned eighth after the backstroke, she moved to third during the breaststroke and it was only at the final turn she powered through to second in 2:04.78, beaten only by a European Record from the Netherlands Marrit Steenbergen in 2:01.83.

Walshe was back in the pool less than half an hour later for the 200m Butterfly Semi-Final finishing second, in the second of the races, to secure automatic qualification for Sunday’s Final in 2:05.60. She advances fourth overall.

A delighted Walshe spoke after her races ‘I’m delighted to take the medal tonight; I think it kind of just shows like all the stuff I put in is paying off. I had a really successful World Cup, and I just tried to bring in some of the confidence from that and kind of race really hard tonight, so yeah, I’m delighted with the swims.’

There were no smiles or celebrations after the medal as Walshe stayed totally focussed on the job at hand ‘I think I had a mission I wanted to complete which is just get into a nice lane for tomorrow and like, the mission wasn’t finished just after the medal, it continues into tomorrow, so I guess you do kind of have to stay focussed even though you’re really excited on the inside, it’s just kind of like saying calm and realising like, I’ve got another race to go and then we can celebrate tonight and like, then again, you know bed early and up again tomorrow, so you do kind of have to stay on it.’

Sunday will be another difficult double for Walshe as she races the 400m Individual Medley heats in the morning and will potentially swim the 200m Butterfly and 400m Individual Medley Finals in the evening.

Walshe said ‘I haven’t really thought too much of it, I felt like tonight was kind of more nerve wracking, the 200m IM, it’s so stacked and  it’s such a depth field that it can go any way, so I guess to get a medal and that tonight it’s amazing, it’s something I probably always dreamed of to stand on the podium for the 200 IM, it’s an event I really like to do. Hopefully there might be one more (medal) to come tomorrow, but yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see.’

Daniel Wiffen closed out his European Championships with a bronze medal in the 800m Freestyle. Wiffen, who is the World Record holder in the event in 7:20.46, came home in 7:30.14.

Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany, who Wiffen beat in the final stages of the 1500m Freestyle Final on Thursday won gold in 7:26.84, while long term training partner of Wiffen Lucas Henveaux of Belgium won silver in 7:28.03.

Wiffen spoke after the race ‘I do think that swim showed the training be honest, because I was on my arse on the start of that. 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.’

 

Jack Cassin closed the evening for Ireland in the Men’s 200m Butterfly Semi-Final. The National Centre Limerick swimmer was over a second faster than his morning swim of 1:54.71, touching in 1:53.62 for fifth in his semi-final and twelfth overall.

Cassin said after the race ‘You know, I’m obviously a little bit disappointed. I would have loved to sort of get a PB and hit that 1.52 marker, but you know, I think there’s a lot to learn there, I still need to take some things from those big guys in that race, but I’m overall quite happy with the race.’

‘I know I’m still like new to the international scenes, so I’m very, like, proud to sort of come so far, and there’s obviously, as I said, there’s so much to work on, so much to do, I think John’s (Szaranek) a great coach, I’m going to speak to him now, see what we can do better for next time.’

 

Cassin will return to the pool on Sunday, the final day of racing in Lublin, with John Shortt, Eoin Corby, and Evan Bailey for the heats of the 4x50m Medley Relay.

At the US Open (50m) in Texas today, Mona McSharry clocked 2:27.47 in the 200m Breaststroke heats and enters tonight’s final as the second seed.

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