October 04, 2021

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Daniel Wiffen returned to international competition on October 1 alongside Calum Bain at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Berlin.

The short course (25m) meet was the opening round of this competition, which has been missing from the calendar since 2019, and took place over three days to Sunday, October 3.

Bain, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast of Australia and will now have his sights set on 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

His FINA Swimming World Cup started in 50m Freestyle (22.09) on Friday, and concluded with 100m Freestyle (49.06) on Saturday and 50m Butterfly (23.62) on Sunday.

Shane Ryan presently holds the short course records in all those events, setting his best times at the International Swimming League in 2020 and 2021 and the 2019 Irish National Short Course Championships.

Wiffen, who set new Irish Senior Records in 800m and 1500m Freestyle at Tokyo 2020, began his campaign in Friday morning's 400m Freestyle heats (3:50.11), then he hit a new personal best of 15:00.97 in the 1500m Freestyle on Saturday.

The 20-year-old, training at Loughborough University in the UK, will this season be looking to better Andrew Meegan's long-held Irish Senior Short Course Record of 15:00.88, which has stood since December 2013.

He gets his second opportunity in Budapest this week, where he will be joined by breaststroke star Eoin Corby and Kilkenny's Maria Godden at Leg 2 of the FINA Swimming World Cup.

The 2021 FINA SWC circuit next stop is Doha, Qatar (October 21-23) and Kazan, Russia (October 28-30).

FINA Swimming World Cup - Berlin

Competition Schedule | FINA Official

Competition Results | FINA Official

Watch live: Home (eurovisionsports.tv)

Track Irish records: Irish National Short Course Records - Updated Sept 20

Irish Swimmers at FINA Swimming World Cup 2021

Budapest - October 7-9

Daniel Wiffen - 200m, 400m, 1500m Freestyle

Budapest - October 7-9

Daniel Wiffen - 200m, 400m, 1500m Freestyle

Eoin Corby - 50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke