Wiffen

Earlier on Wednesday, Grace Davison set a new Irish Senior and Championship record of 54.45 in the 100m freestyle heats to reach Commonwealth Games and European consideration and while slightly slower in the final with a time of 54.88, it was enough to claim gold

The 18-year-old Ards swimmer finished ahead of Larne’s Danielle Hill whose 55.92 is also enough for Commonwealth Games consideration, while National Centre Ulster’s Victoria Catterson finished third in 56.12.

“I’m really happy with that (day), but if I’m honest I’m probably a little bit disappointed with tonight, I wanted to go a bit quicker, I was 54.4 this morning and 54.8 there,” Davison reflected.

“But it’s all learning for me and I think a big thing for me is learning to be quicker in the morning, so when I do go to the international stage I can progress through the rounds, so if anything, it’s interesting to see that I can go quicker in the morning than in the final.

“I’m really happy to get all those times out of the way on the first day of the competition, it’s pretty cool.”

In the Open 100m freestyle final, Limerick swimmer Evan Bailey took gold in 48.98 with Bangor’s James Ward second and Lisburn City’s Matthew Hamilton third.

Jack Cassin claimed the 200m butterfly title with a personal best and championship record of 1:57.05, finishing ahead of team-mate Paddy Johnston and UCD’s Sean Donnellan.

Templeogue’s Ellen Walshe won the 200m butterfly title in 2:09.74 – under the consideration time for the European Aquatics Champinships – with National Centre Ulster’s Alana Burns Atkin second and Eve Leleux third.

Clare Custer won the 800m freestyle title in 8:52.63, finishing ahead of Bangor team-mates Chloe Stewart and Eva Hand with visitor Fleur Lewis of Loughborough University first home in the race with a time of 8:48.33.

Competition continues tomorrow (Thursday) through to Sunday.

Wiffen said he is expecting “to swim the best ever so I don’t have to make a decision” across the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events he will be competing in, despite his recent lack of competitive action.

He outlined his goals as swimming the 400m around 4.33 seconds, the 800m below 7.42 seconds and the 1500m under 14.40 to assess whether his time spent in California has been successful.

The County Armagh man also cited Dublin as a potential future base if he does decide to move, but emphasised that doing so would be heavily dependant on his performances in Bangor.

“If I’m around those times, under or around PB, then that’s great. That obviously means the training is working, and if it doesn’t work then I [have to figure out] what I’m going do after,” he added.

“I’m thinking of coming back to Dublin if it doesn’t go well, but, we have to see. If I swim lights out in Bangor, then my decisions obviously can’t have been made.”

Wiffen also explained the main differences he has encounter between training in England and in the US, where they use yardage instead of metres.

“The training is just quite different and, even though I don’t swim a lot of yards, I just think being in America is fun. There’s quite a lot of distractions, and it’s a good lifestyle but, it’s not the same as what Loughborough was like,” he said.

“[It was] all about grind, very similar weather to Ireland and I love swimming in the rain and when the weather is dull. When you’re in the sun everything becomes a lot harder and the motivation becomes a lot harder.

“When I’m swimming in California, my motivation is I’m with a really good training group and everybody’s pushing each other, where as in Loughborough, I feel like it was more self-motivation, I was getting there because I wanted to win.

“I wanted to do all these things where I feel like another group is kind of pushing me to swim fast, which I like, but I think I want a bit of the self-motivation back, so we’ll have to see how the next week goes.”