A week laden with medals and final appearances across swimming and diving, the curtain came down on a historic 2024 European Aquatics Championships for Ireland, concluding with two final appearances on the last night of action in Belgrade, Serbia.
The medals in the pool were Ireland’s first at a senior European Championships (50m) since 2018, and a first-ever in diving at this meet. Ireland will return home with three medals across swimming and diving (one gold, one silver and one bronze) delivered by Danielle Hill (50m & 100m Backstroke) and Clare Cryan (3m Springboard). Across swimming and diving there were sixteen finals and nine semi-finals as well as two new Irish Records.
Saturday’s weather threw Nathan Wiffen’s schedule into disarray when he and his competitors were asked to stand down from the blocks before the 1500m Freestyle Final due to lightning overhead. Today Wiffen showed no sign of letting that affect his performance as he led the pack out in the opening laps with a fantastic display in Sunday’s final. Wiffen stopped the clock on 15:10.64 to finish fourth in Europe.
The Loughborough swimmer closed out his week with two European final appearances in what was just his second senior international meet.
Speaking after, Wiffen said: “I was actually quite surprised as I was leading for most of the race, I think it caught up to me as I was feeling it. I’m happy, I’ve equalled my time in the heats, I’m very happy with my second international. Just another year of training and I’ll probably be beating those guys out there.”
Shane Ryan was back in the pool following his scintillating performance in the 50 Freestyle on Saturday where he brought down the Irish Senior Record to 21.82. Ryan was in and out of the water in 22.17 to finish eighth in Europe.
Ryan said: “I’m a little disappointed about tonight, yesterday took a toll physically and mentally. Look, I haven’t swum that in two years, in a final tonight and at 30 years old and still getting faster and learning, we still make mistakes no matter what level we are at. What a ride so far, we will see what the future holds.”
Adding, “At the end of the day, I just wanted to turn up, represent the country as best as I can, have fun and swim fast. Yesterday’s record took me by surprise, that time yesterday would have got me third today, these boy’s train 50 Free, I don’t, there’s a lot more there.”
Andrew Reid, Swim Ireland’s Head of Performance Pathways & Operations who was Team Leader for Belgrade, said: “A team of 20 athletes travelled to Belgrade, a team comprising athletes with considerable international senior experience and athletes beginning their senior journey. They all brought tremendous energy to the team whether it was in the team prep area or in the stands. They handled any challenges that were thrown at them and delivered when it mattered. Danielle’s gold and silver medal and Clare’s bronze medal were the icing on the cake for a team who delivered 2 Irish Senior Records, 3 podium, 15 top 8 and 10 top 16 Performances. Congratulations to all the athletes and their coaches.”
Day 7 Results – European Aquatics Championships
Men 1500 Freestyle Final Nathan Wiffen H 15:10.01 (4) F 15:10.64 (4)
Men 50 Freestyle Final Shane Ryan H 21.82 (1) ISR SF 21.96 (4) F 22.17 (8)
Men 400 Freestyle Cormac Rynn H 4:01.51 (24)
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