﻿{"id":617422,"date":"2025-07-20T02:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T09:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=617422"},"modified":"2025-07-20T05:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T12:42:17","slug":"world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships: Daniel Wiffen &#8216;Willing to Push Himself to the Limit&#8217; in Pursuit of 800 Free World Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>World Championships: Daniel Wiffen &#8216;Willing to Push Himself to the Limit&#8217; in Pursuit of 800 Free World Record<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Zhang Lin&#8217;s<\/strong> 800 free world record has stood since July 2009 and it is, says, <strong>Daniel Wiffen<\/strong>, &#8220;definitely the hardest to break&#8221; while vowing to do whatever it takes to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang qualified sixth for the 800 final at the World Championships in Rome at the height of the supersuit era, clocking 7:48.79 in prelims with <strong>Oussama Mellouli<\/strong> of Tunisia leading the way in 7:41.82.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_429062\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-429062\" data-attachment-id=\"429062\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ishof-class-of-2014-honor-swimmers-hackett-kovacs-malchow\/grant-hackett\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"233,278\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Grant Hackett\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Aug 2 2020 &#8211; Grant Hackett &#8211; Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia Grant Hackett&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Grant Hackett &#8211; Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia &lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-429062\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett.jpg\" alt=\"Grant Hackett\" width=\"204\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett.jpg 233w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett-168x200.jpg 168w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Grant-Hackett-150x179.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-429062\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Hackett &#8211; Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Grant Hackett&#8217;s<\/strong> world record of 7:38.65 had stood since the 2005 worlds in Montreal, Canada, but Zhang &#8211; swimming out in lane seven &#8211; consigned that mark to history in brutal fashion, stopping the clock at 7:32.12. Mellouli also went inside the previous WR in 7:35.27 for silver with <strong>Ryan Cochrane<\/strong> third in 7:41.92.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang negative split the race as he went out in 3:46.79 and came home in 3:45.33 with a final 100 of 28.10\/25.99 (54.09) steering him home, one of 43 world records set at the Foro Italico.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang and Mellouli&#8217;s times have occupied the top two slots in the rankings ever since with <strong>Ahmed Hafnaoui<\/strong> coming closest with a 7:37.00 victory at the 2023 worlds. The Tunisian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-officially-suspended-21-months-for-whereabouts-violations\/\">is currently serving a 21-month ban<\/a> for whereabouts violations having missed three drugs tests over 12 months.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Short<\/strong> is fourth all-time with 7:37.76 followed by <strong>Sven Schwarz&#8217;s<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/flash-sven-schwarz-takes-down-european-800-free-record-lowers-daniel-wiffens-2023-standard\/\">European record of 7:38.12 at the German Championships<\/a> in May and Wiffen&#8217;s 7:38.19 en-route to the Olympic title in 7:38.19. The fact that Hackett&#8217;s 2005 then-WR is still the eighth-fastest performance in history is a measure of the magnitude of his performance 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang&#8217;s WR is the second-oldest men&#8217;s individual standard, with <strong>Paul Biedermann&#8217;s<\/strong> 1:42.00 in the 200 free one day older.<\/p>\n<p>World Aquatics describe it as &#8220;untouchable&#8221; in their film of the race and while Wiffen acknowledges it represents a monumental challenge, he disputes that it is out of reach.<\/p>\n<p>He told Swimming World: &#8220;I would say that the 800m world record isn&#8217;t untouchable and for me to break it I would just reverse his 400s, so 3:45-3:46.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that this world record is definitely the hardest to break but I believe that all world records will be broken and I&#8217;m willing to push myself to that limit to get it. In terms of the last 100\/50 I think I would look to be a bit ahead of the world record line just to give a little bit of leeway.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Wiffen Expects Different Racing Approach &amp; Eyes Sub-14:30<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_593265\" style=\"width: 263px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-593265\" data-attachment-id=\"593265\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/paris-2024-olympic-games-174\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_ASta_ASZ1786.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;3.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Andrea Staccioli \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON Z 9&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Daniel Wiffen of Ireland celebrates after winning the gold medal in the swimming 800m Freestyle Men Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 30, 2024.&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1722367217&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Andrea Staccioli \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;2000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Paris 2024 Olympic Games&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Paris 2024 Olympic Games\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Daniel Wiffen of Ireland celebrates after winning the gold medal in the swimming 800m Freestyle Men Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 30, 2024.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_ASta_ASZ1786-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_ASta_ASZ1786-1024x683.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-593265\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_ASta_ASZ1786-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel Wiffen\" width=\"253\" height=\"181\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-593265\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Wiffen: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Wiffen arrives in Singapore as the reigning world champion in the 800 and 1500 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-8-finals-daniel-wiffen-dominates-1500-for-distance-double\/\">as he became the fourth man<\/a> to complete the distance double.<\/p>\n<p>He was the first Irish swimmer to win a swimming world title when he won the 800 in 7:40.74 before going on to dominate the longer race in 14:34.07 which stands as the eighth swiftest all-time. Wiffen also finished seventh in the 400 in 3:46.65.<\/p>\n<p>Months later he headed to Paris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-night-4-daniel-wiffen-makes-more-history-for-ireland-with-800-free-gold\/\">where he held off the trademark late charge<\/a> of <strong>Bobby Finke<\/strong> to win the 800 title before bronze in the longer race <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/flash-bobby-finke-crushes-1500-free-world-record-in-1430-67\/\">where the American took down Sun Yang&#8217;s WR<\/a> in 14:30.67, 12 years to the day since the Chinese swimmer set the standard at London 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Wiffen also competed in the open water, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/daniel-wiffen-no-regrets-about-taking-to-the-river-seine-despite-violent-10k-debut\/\">finishing 18th after a &#8220;violent&#8221; race in the River Seine<\/a> that left him battered and a little bruised but with no regrets.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old is entered in the 400, 800 and 1500 in Singapore with season&#8217;s bests of 3:46.87, 7:41.52 and 14:42.71. The 2025 rankings are dominated by the Magdeburg powerhouse with <b>Lukas M\u00e4rtens\u00a0<\/b>taking down Biedermann&#8217;s 400 free WR in 3:439.96, Schwarz&#8217; European standard in the 800 free and <strong>Florian Wellbrock<\/strong> posting 14:36.25 in the 15. All three men are coached by <strong>Bernd Berkhahn<\/strong> with Wellbrock already having added four gold medals to his armoury in the 10k, 5k, 3k knockout sprint and the team relay with Germany in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>Wiffen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/dan-wiffen-on-bobby-finkes-ripple-effect-and-sun-yangs-world-record-as-more-history-beckons\/\">told Swimming World<\/a> in 2023 that he believed people were changing their approach to the distance races to be faster in the final stages because of Finke and his customary late charge through the field.<\/p>\n<p>Time moves on quickly though and Wiffen feels things may change once more at the upcoming worlds as a new shoal of swimmers push for the podium.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_593280\" style=\"width: 259px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-593280\" data-attachment-id=\"593280\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/daniel-wiffen-talks-surfing-in-bali-the-gladiator-2-film-premiere-plans-to-go-1429\/paris-2024-olympic-games-183\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_GSca_GS41072.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Giorgio Scala \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON Z 9&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Daniel Wiffen of Ireland shows the gold medal after competing in the swimming 800m Freestyle Men Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 30, 2024.&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1722369219&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Giorgio Scala \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;32&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Paris 2024 Olympic Games&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Paris 2024 Olympic Games\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Daniel Wiffen of Ireland shows the gold medal after competing in the swimming 800m Freestyle Men Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 30, 2024.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_GSca_GS41072-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_GSca_GS41072-1024x683.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-593280\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240730_GSca_GS41072-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"178\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-593280\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Wiffen: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I think Bobby did change how people raced the distance events in the past but I think moving in to Singapore there is a lot of new fast distance swimmers who are pushing to win their first world champs medal. So in my opinion I think we could see some very different racing from previous world championships.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But this overall distance age is the reason why so many people are going fast and pushing world records because there are so many people trying to push towards it and it makes you push harder when it becomes a big race just to make it out of heats.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Singapore represents Wiffen&#8217;s final meet working with <strong>Andi Manley<\/strong> who coached the swimmer to Olympic and world titles. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/daniel-wiffen-to-head-for-dublin-after-end-of-andi-manley-coaching-partnership-will-also-train-at-cal-berkeley\/\">He announced in June<\/a> that the partnership was set to come to an end following worlds with the swimmer training in Dublin and with brother Nathan at Cal-Berkeley.<\/p>\n<p>As for Wiffen&#8217;s own objectives, he reiterated what he&#8217;d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/daniel-wiffen-talks-surfing-in-bali-the-gladiator-2-film-premiere-plans-to-go-1429\/\">told Swimming World late last year<\/a> and his intention to go sub-14:30 in the 1500 which would see him inside Finke&#8217;s WR.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;ll always aim for the world record as that&#8217;s what it takes to win!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Championships: Daniel Wiffen &#8216;Willing to Push Himself to the Limit&#8217; in Pursuit of 800 Free World Record Zhang Lin&#8217;s 800 free world record has stood since July 2009 and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7575,"featured_media":593942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122074,10],"tags":[67986,70619,128902,120179,72820,120079,68659,2468,130679,28341,28752,125410,31742,60177],"class_list":["post-617422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-europe","category-world","tag-2009-world-championships","tag-2025-world-aquatics-championships","tag-ahmed-hafnaoui","tag-bernd-berkhahn","tag-bobby-finke","tag-daniel-wiffen","tag-florian-wellbrock","tag-grant-hackett","tag-lukas-martens","tag-paul-biedermann","tag-ryan-cochrane","tag-sam-short","tag-sun-yang","tag-zhang-lin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Daniel Wiffen &quot;Willing To Push Himself To The Limit&quot; For 800 WR<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zhang Lin&#039;s 800 free WR is, says, Daniel Wiffen, &quot;definitely the hardest to break&quot; while vowing to do whatever it takes to do just that.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Championships: Daniel Wiffen &#039;Willing to Push Himself to the Limit&#039; in Pursuit of 800 Free World Record\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Zhang Lin&#039;s 800 free WR is, says, Daniel Wiffen, &quot;definitely the hardest to break&quot; while vowing to do whatever it takes to do just that.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-20T09:25:33+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-20T12:42:17+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/20240730_ASta_ASZ1808.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Liz Byrnes - Europe Correspondent\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Liz Byrnes - Europe Correspondent\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-daniel-wiffen-willing-to-push-himself-to-the-limit-in-pursuit-of-800-free-world-record\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Liz Byrnes - Europe Correspondent\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f55ce46c708d9bd9c8562ba7ba18dab1\"},\"headline\":\"World Championships: Daniel Wiffen &#8216;Willing to Push Himself to the Limit&#8217; 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