World champion Daniel Wiffen savouring 'surreal' achievement

Daniel Wiffen may have woken up a world champion in Doha this morning, but the 22-year-old admitted the magnitude of his historic feat at the World Aquatics Championships on Wednesday had yet to sink in.

Wiffen claimed Ireland's first podium finish at the event when he grabbed gold in the 800m freestyle, clocking a time of seven minutes 40.94 seconds to finish ahead of Elijah Winnington of Australia and Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri.

The Magheralin, County Armagh man had finished fourth in both the 800m and 1500m events at the most recent World Championships last July - setting a European record of 7:39.19 in the 800m final - but travelled to Qatar with high hopes of a medal after claiming short-course 400m, 800m and 1500m golds in the European Championships in Romania in December.

Reflecting on what it meant to be crowned a world champion, Wiffen told listeners on RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "It's pretty amazing. I mean you dream of these things when you are younger and obviously last night it came through.

"I've a bunch of mixed emotions and waking up this morning, it feels pretty surreal."

Celebrations are on hold, with the 1500m freestyle next on the horizon.

"I'm racing again on Saturday in the 1500, so really it's just about recovery and trying to get on to the next race," he said.

A decorated competitor in recent years, Wiffen admitted that his latest medal was a little different to all the others, saying: "I have it at the end of my bed here. It's massive, it's the biggest medal I've ever got and it's very heavy.

"It's definitely a World Championships medal. You can tell that by the size of it. It's pretty cool.

"I think I was holding it for about an hour because so many people wanted photos with me with it.

"It took me a while