Daniel Wiffen into 800m freestyle final at World Championships final after clocking Olympic time

Daniel Wiffen secured qualification for the Paris Olympics after breaking his previous Irish record for the 800m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

In winning his heat and qualifying for the final, Wiffen's time of 7:43.81 erased his former best of 7:44.45, which was also well inside the Olympic qualifying time of 7:51.65.

The County Down competitor is the third swimmer to achieve Paris qualification with Ellen Walshe (200m individual medley) and Mona McSharry (100m breaststroke) clocking their required time in the first two days of competition.

Wiffen ranks fourth in the 800m freestyle final, with the full Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games podium of Bobby Finke (gold), Gregorio Paltrinieiri (silver) and Mykhailo Romanchuk (bronze) also advancing. The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 12.02pm (Irish time).

Speaking after the race, Wiffen said: "I'm feeling great, that’s obviously job one done which was to qualify for the Olympics, and then to progress to the final was next so I’ve done both in a really great race.

"My plan was to be as easy as possible, and I was maybe hoping for a tiny bit faster but I’m really happy I made it back and it wasn’t too taxing in the body."

Darragh Greene won his heat of the 50m breaststroke in 27.54 to finish in 22nd spot overall. Victoria Catterson, making her individual World Championships debut clocked 2:00.82 in the 200m freestyle. Both Greene and Catterson return to the pool on Thursday for the 200m breaststroke and 100m freestyle respectively.

Mona McSharry will compete in the 100m breaststroke final at 1.45pm on Tuesday afternoon.