Wiffen rallies for silver as McCartney claims bronze
Wiffen rallies for silver as McCartney claims bronze
Andy Gray - BBC Sport NI Journalist Wed, July 29, 2026 at 8:26 PM UTC
0
Ellie McCartney won a Commonwealth bronze before Daniel Wiffen was second in the 1500m final in Glasgow
Northern Ireland's Daniel Wiffen claimed a silver medal in the men's 1500m freestyle final at the Commonwealth Games, after Ellie McCartney took women's 200m breaststroke bronze in Glasgow.
Wiffen, who had described himself as a "medal guarantee" in the build-up to the Games, had to settle for silver behind Australian's Sam Short.
The 25-year-old, who won 800m gold and 1500m silver at the Paris Olympics two years ago, put in his best performance of the Commonwealths after he missed out on the podium in the 400m and 800m freestyle.
Short, who also won 400m and 800m freestyle gold in Glasgow, won in a time of 14:42.11, with Wiffen 2.69 seconds behind but a comfortable second ahead of Benjamin Goedemans of Australia.
It came after McCartney finished a surprise third behind home favourite Angharad Evans and Kaylene Corbett of South Africa in the opening race of the evening.
The 21-year-old had posted the sixth-fastest time in the semi-finals but put in a storming performance to take third in a time of 2:24.73.
Her time was enough to win bronze ahead of Australia's Ella Ramsay by 0.16 seconds.
O'Connor wins NI's first gold medal in heptathlon
McCartney is Commonwealth Youth Games in 2023 and European Under-23 gold medallist last year, but her bronze in Glasgow is a first senior international medal for the Enniskillen swimmer.
Advertisement
"I'm over the moon. I didn't know what to expect coming in tonight, but I just wanted to give it my all," McCartney told BBC Sport.
"It was the last individual race I have. I have the relay later tonight, so still another race to go, but I just wanted to end it off on a high."
The two medals on Wednesday brings Northern Ireland's tally in the pool to four after after Bethany Firth's bronze medal in the 200m freestyle S14 and Barry McClements' silver in the men's S9 100m backstroke.
Five minutes before Wiffen won silver, Kate O'Connor won Northern Ireland's first gold of the Games as she won the heptathlon.
Gary Kelly and the duo of Chloe Wilson and Shauna O'Neill won bronze medals in bowls, and six Northern Ireland boxers are guaranteed medals after reaching the semi-finals.
In the men's 200m freestyle, Jack McMillan finished in sixth place as Kai Taylor of Australia won gold.
England's James Guy was second and Matt Richards of Wales took bronze.
McMillan was second after 100m metres but a surge from his Team GB team-mates was enough to surpass the 26-year-old and he finished in a time of 1:46.29 seconds.
Northern Ireland will also be in relay action in the women's 4x100m medley final, where McCartney will be back in the pool, at 21:20 BST, before the men's event at 21:31 BST
Source: “AOL Sports”
