IRISH SWIMMER DANIEL Wiffen qualified for the Paris Olympics as he booked his place in the 800m freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

Wiffen placed fourth his heat this morning with a time of 7:43.81, representing a new Irish record and coming in well inside the Olympic qualification time of 7:51.65.

Wiffen is the third Irish swimmer to qualify for the Paris games, with Ellen Walshe (200m individual medley) and Mona McSharry (100m breaststroke) clocking their required time in the first two days of competition in Japan.

“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,” Wiffen said.

“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.”

Australia’s Sam Short, who won 1500m freestyle Commonwealth Games Gold ahead of Wiffen’s silver medal last year, is the fastest qualifier for the 800m freestyle final in 7:40.90.

The final takes place tomorrow at 12.02pm.

This afternoon Mona McSharry finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke final. The Sligo native clocked 1:06.07 and was just 0.13 seconds behind bronze.

Also in action this morning Darragh Greene won his heat of the 50m breaststroke in 27.54 to finish in 22nd place 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.

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