Wiffen brothers through to 800m freestyle final at European Short Course Championships

Daniel and Nathan Wiffen have secured places in Sunday's 800m freestyle final at the European Short Course Championships in Romania after finishing first and fifth overall in the heats.

Daniel, the European record holder in the event, came home in 7:33.38 to secure the centre lane for the final.

Nathan was second in his heat, posting a second personal best time of 7:34.78. His previous best was 7:46.40 which he swam during the 1500m freestyle final on Thursday.

Victoria Catterson posted an Irish record of 1:56.90 in the 200m freestyle, breaking Melanie Nocher's 2011 standard of 1:57.29. Catterson’s own previous best had stood at 1:57.91, the National Centre Dublin swimmer now has the short course and long course versions of the record.

16-year-old John Shortt was impressive in the 200m vackstroke breaking Conor Ferguson’s 2016 Irish senior and junior Records of 1:54.30 in 1:54.21 to progress to his first senior international semi-final.

Ellen Walshe, who already competes in the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley finals this evening, now adds the 50m butterfly semi-final to her schedule after a 25.99 second swim in this morning’s heats for 12th place overall. Walshe is the current record Irish holder in the event in 25.90.

Shane Ryan and Max McCusker have both advanced from the 100m freestyle heats. Ryan was the fastest of a quartet of Irish swimmers in the event, touching in 47.00 for sixth place overall. McCusker won his heat in 48.33 and is ranked 16th in the semi-finals. Evan Bailey (48.53) and Oisin Tebite (50.17) both swam best times to conclude their championships.

Also, in action on Saturday morning were Liam O’Connor (27.69) and Tom Fannon (27.75), who swam best times in the 50m breaststroke, while Ellie