2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
- Friday, July 29 – Wednesday, August 3, 2022
- Birmingham, England
- Sandwell Aquatic Center
- Start Times
- Prelims: 10:30 am local / 5:30 am ET
- Finals: 7:00 pm local / 2:00 pm ET
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Event Schedule
- Entry List (PDF)
- Live Results
While competing on the first night of finals of these 2022 Commonwealth Games, 21-year-old Daniel Wiffen lowered an Irish national record for the 2nd time today.
Already having checked in with a new lifetime best and Irish standard of 3:47.43 in the men’s 400m free out of the heats, Wiffen stepped things up tonight to ultimately finish in an even quicker time of 3:46.62 in the medal race.
Entering this meet, Wiffen held the Irish record at 3:48.75, meaning the man who trains at Loughborough has sliced over 2 seconds off of his 400m free PB over the course of his two Commonweawlth Games swims.
But this is just typical behavior for the freestyle ace, who has overwritten this 400m free record now for the 5th time this year. He already broke it once at the Stockholm Open in April and twice at the Barcelona Mare Nostrum stop in May.
As fast as Wiffen’s swim was, he ultimately found himself just .13 outside of a top 3 finish, settling for 4th. Instead, it was Australia who took the entire podium, led by Elijah Winnington, Sam Short and Mack Horton as follows.
It’s a great swim for Wiffen, who has shown fantastic progress since leaving the Jon Rudd shambles of a National ‘system’. Having tried the National Centre in Dublin for 6 months, quickly realised what it was and then left to the Loughborough University system, where both he and his brother have continued to thrive.
Despite multiple frustrations by Rudd, including not being allowed to swim the 400 at worlds, Daniel has continued to let his swimming do the talking. With 3 Olympic QT’s now in the bag, hopefully his plan will continue to progress mindful he has nothing to do with the Irish system.
It was also a great night for Barry McClements, who wasn’t deemed suitable to be… Read more »