Daniel Wiffen’s bid for a second gold medal at the Olympics is still on track as he comfortably qualified for the Final of the 1500m freestyle with the fastest time of Saturday morning’s heats.
The Magheralin man, who won Northern Ireland’s fourth ever Olympic gold medal in the 800m freestyle on Tuesday, now has his sights on doubling that tally in Sunday’s Final.
He did so with an impressive time, touching up in 14:40.34, more than two seconds clear of his competitors to post the fastest time of any of the four heats, further enhancing his status as the favourite for gold.
Wiffen had trailed at the 750m mark as 2016 gold medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri was slightly ahead at the halfway mark, but in the second half of the race the Northern Irishman pulled away, with the Italian holding on for second 2.2s adrift and France’s David Aubry taking third.
Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi topped heat four, finishing with a time of 14:44.20 to take third seeding for tomorrow’s Final, with defending champion Bobby Finke of the USA qualifying, too, coming home in 14:45.31.
Meanwhile, Danielle Hill missed out on a place in the 50m freestyle Semi-Finals as he finished last in her heat, her time of 25.02s a full 0.3s off the pace required to crack the top-16 that qualified for the Semi-Finals.
Swedish two-time Olympic gold medallist Sarah Sjöström topped the timings in the heats with a fine swim of 23.85s which was almost half a second faster than her competitors, Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick second fastest in 24.27s and the USA’s Gretchen Walsh clocking a 24.37s time.
Larne Swimming Club star Hill, alongside Ards’ Grace Davison, also failed to qualify for the Final of the women’s 4x100m medley relay as they finished outside the qualification places.
Davison would post the team’s fastest leg, a 55.89 in the final sprint, but their overall time of 4:00.12 was 2.64s off the pace as Australia topped the times with a 3:54.81, followed closely by Canada and China.
There was also disappointment for fellow clubmate Conor Ferguson, who was part of the Irish 4x100m men’s medley relay team who failed to qualify for the Final of their event after finishing sixth in their heat.
Ferguson, who was first in the pool for Ireland, and his team would clock a time of 3:34.97 which saw them finish 11th in the overall classification, 1.3s off a qualification spot.
French Olympic hero Léon Marchand was once again on top form as he helped the hosts top the timings, touching up in 3:31.36, with China second just 0.22s adrift and the USA third at 0.26s in arrears.