European Short Course Championships: Daniel Wiffen wins second gold medal in 1500m freestyle

Daniel Wiffen produced a superb swim to win the 1500m freestyle and clinch his second gold medal of the European Short Course Championships in Romania.

The County Armagh swimmer destroyed the field as he set a new personal best and Irish senior record time of 14:09.11, the third quickest time in history.

Wiffen was over 12 seconds ahead of Frenchman David Aubry in second with Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine third.

"It was great," Wiffen said after his victory.

"I mean, I thought I was going to go faster, I can't lie. I got to the 1000m mark and I was really feeling it, but a five-second personal best, you can't complain.

"Ireland had never won a gold at a major international before and now we have two."

Nathan Wiffen, Daniel's twin, clocked a PB in his first senior final with his time of 14:38.75 meaning he finished eighth.

Brother Daniel led from the first of the 60 lengths and started on world record pace.

Wiffen also won gold in Tuesday's 400m freestyle

At halfway he was over a second inside German Florian Wellbrock's world and European record of 14:06.88 set two years ago.

With 500m to go, Wiffen dropped off world record pace but still looked strong and the gold medal was never in doubt.

"I'm looking forward to the 800m in a couple of days and we get a day off which I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he continued.

"It's amazing. It's great the support I get from Ireland and I'm just happy that they can cheer me on like that and I win for them.

"I'm not really rested for this. I raced a lot last week, so this is great prep for me. I'm taking it all in and this is what I'm going to take back to training in the pool when I get back. It's going to really motivate me to start transferring this form to some long course."

Wiffen had become Ireland's first winner at the European Short Course Championships on Tuesday when he swam away from the field in the 400m freestyle.

He will now try and complete an astonishing treble when the 800m freestyle takes place at the weekend.

Hill breaks Irish record to reach 50m backstroke final

Meanwhile Danielle Hill continued her impressive form by breaking her third Irish record in as many days.

Hill, who broke the Irish 50m freestyle record twice on Tuesday, set a new Irish standard of 26.59 in the heats of the 50m backstroke, winning her heat and progressing to the semi-finals.

The Larne swimmer finished fourth in her semi in 26.62, which was the sixth fastest time, and she will complete in the final on Friday.