Wiffen twins make a splash at Irish Open

Magheralin’s Wiffen twins have now continued their winning streak into the new 2023 LC swimming season, where they have just competed at the Irish Open championships in Dublin. 

It follows a successful 2022, where Daniel Wiffen became the first ever Irishman to set a new European Record in the 800m freestyle with a time of 7:25.96. 

This was the fourth fastest time ever posted for the 800m in the world and also ranked Daniel in number 1 in the world for this event in 2022. 

Daniel was also ranked number one in the world for the 1500m in 2022.

The first day at the Irish Open was the 400m freestyle. After fantastic heat swims, Daniel and Nathan claimed the two middle lanes. Daniel took the first 200m out hard to obtain an early lead with Nathan in third place. Nathan then steadily picked up the pace to close out the race in second place behind Daniel (3:52.83) with a time of 3:54.65, a five-second personal best time. Daniel also set a new Championship Record in this event and it was great to have both of them on the podium together. 

Daniel only needed to achieve the qualifying time in the 400m freestyle to go with his other two events (800m and 1500m freestyle) for the World Championships (Japan) in July after his successful Commonwealth Games where he won a silver medal.

The next day, Daniel inspired the younger swimmers from the Provincial Squads at a 'meet and greet' about his journey to being Irelands highest ranked swimmer. He then left to go back to train in Loughborough for his targeted meet in Stockholm next week.

Nathan continued the Wiffen podium success in the 800m freestyle. Swimming at a fast pace throughout the race, well ahead of the competition, he claimed the gold medal in a time of 8:03.79 - a 10-second personal best, setting a new Championship record with the second fastest 800m ever from an Irishman.

The final day brought the 1500m freestyle, Nathan has not swum this event for a couple of years, but again he was on superb form. He swam a strong race to finish two lengths ahead of his nearest competitor to claim gold with a time of 15:34.17 - a 10 second personal best time.

Next events for both boys is the AP International Meet in the Olympic Aquatic Stadium in London. This was set up by Adam Peaty and features a number of high profile swimmers including Daniel as a special guest swimmer. 

 They are still continuing to update everyone with the “Wiffen Twins” YouTube vlog. Good luck boys!