No Trip To Short-Course Worlds For Daniel Wiffen
Daniel Wiffen will not be competing as part of the Swim Ireland team at the World Short-Course Championships in Budapest.
The Irishman has had a memorable 2024 in which he’s won Olympic gold and bronze as well becoming double world champion in Doha.
The only silverware missing from his armoury are medals from the European 50m Championships and short-course worlds.
Following the Olympics, Wiffen returned to Ireland for three weeks before travelling through Bali and Lombok.
Daniel Wiffen: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
While he’s been training for six or seven weeks, it is only recently that he has returned to full volume with coach Andi Manley so there’ll be no trip to the Duna Arena for December’s meet.
He told Swimming World: “I had a talk with Jon Rudd (Swim Ireland performance director) and we decided we didn’t think it was going to be right.
“I was struggling coming back to training after the Olympics. Andi wasn’t coaching when I came back so I wasn’t really getting what I wanted. He’s coaching now but not at the start so I was struggling for motivation.
“I’ve been training for six weeks on and off; from last week I did about 70k so I’m fully back in training.”
The three-time European short-course champion was speaking to Swimming World ahead of the BUCS Championships (25m).
His plan was to do the 400, 800 and 1500, saying: “I wonder if I can manage that amount but we’ll see.”
Wiffen swept all three events, winning the 400 in 3:43.22, the 800 (7:39.67) and setting a world lead of 14:31.81 in the longest race in the pool.