Olympics latest: Daniel Wiffen completes marathon swim in River Seine

Daniel Wiffen has completed the marathon 10km swim in the River Seine this morning, finishing in 18th place, six minutes and 27.4 seconds after the overall leader.

The Olympic 800m freestyle champion and 1,500m freestyle bronze medallist is Ireland’s first ever competitor in marathon swimming at an Olympic Games.

Wiffen, who had never competed in an international open water race, took to the water at 6.30am Irish time on Friday morning.

Kristof Rasovszky from Hungary won gold in the race.

The 10km route was on a 1.67km loop (six loops) in the River Seine, the original venue for the swimming competition at the Games in 1924, between the Pont Alexandre III (where the boats started out for opening ceremony), and the Pont de l’Alma.

Later today, Rhasidat Adeleke will be the first Irish woman to contest an Olympic 400m final at the Stade de France in Paris.

The 21-year-old from Tallaght takes to the track at 7pm Irish time aiming to be in the mix, but the task ahead will be far from straightforward, with a particularly high calibre field vying for podium places.

Amongst them are reigning world champion and Tokyo silver medallist Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) who won the second semi-final on Wednesday night by a distance.

The morning session on Friday also features several Irish athletes, with two featuring in individual semi-finals.

The women’s 4x400m relay team will race in heat two of their event at 9.40am.

Despite a brilliant run in his heat, Mark English may need to significantly lower his national record to make a final in the men’s 800m. He goes in the first of three semi-finals at 10.30am with only the first two booking a place in the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots across the three