WIFFEN MY REACH

Daniel’s gunning to become first ever Irish medallist on World stage as gutted Mcsharry comes up short

DANIEL WIFFEN is hoping for better in his second Worlds final of the week after “gutted” Mona Mcsharry was out of the medals in Doha yesterday.

Wiffen is back in more comfortable territory after he finished seventh in the 400m Freestyle final on Monday.

The 22-year-old was fourth in the 800m final last year and with some of his biggest rivals not at these championships, Wiffen will back himself today to become the first ever Irish medallist at this level (4pm Irish time).

He ranked second overall in the heats with a time of 7:46.90 yesterday behind Luca De

Tullio of Italy.

“Yeah amazing, I was trying not to go too hard,” said Wiffen afterwards.

“It’s not a stacked field here so it’s about going as slow as possible to still make it back ( for the final).”

Still, Wiffen needed to push on the accelerator over the last 100m as there were five in contention.

“I knew it was going to be tight, I knew what pace they were going so it was like, ‘I don’t want to leave it to chance finishing fourth in the heats’, so top two is what we wanted to get through,” he explained.

“I’m looking forward to the final, I’m getting into my preferred schedule now, so yeah, just looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great race.” Mcsharry, however, was upset after missing out on a medal by half a second.

She qualified second fastest for the 100m breaststroke final but, from a central lane, finished in fifth place when it mattered yesterday evening. China’s Qianting Tang, the only swimmer faster than Mcsharry in the heats, won gold in 1:05.27.

The Sligo hopeful touched in 1:06.42, a half a second outside the medals.

“I’m gutted,” said the 23-yearold (inset). “I just felt like it was there, within my reach.

“I just didn’t have it today and that’s really tough to deal with, just back to the drawing board and keep working I guess.

“I think the most important thing is not coming away from this kind of distraught or disheartened, and trying to use it to my advantage rather than feeling like I’m not capable.

“And that’s probably going to be the hardest part.”