'We'll see what happens' - Wiffen open to move
Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen says "we'll see what happens" over his future training base after he won 800m gold at the Irish Open with a "pretty awful" time.
Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen says "we'll see what happens" over his future training base after he won 800m freestyle gold at the Irish Open with a "pretty awful" time. It was a third gold of the week for the Olympic 800m champion after he also won the 400m and 1500m in Northern Ireland. Wiffen had said he would consider moving his training base away from the University of California, Berkley, if he did not put in strong performances in Bangor.
The 24-year-old moved to the USA, where his twin Nathan also trains, last year after five years at Loughborough University, and is gearing up for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer. He has been linked with a move back to Dublin with Swim Ireland, and when asked about his plans he said he would "reassess and figure out what I'm doing". Wiffen had targeted a time of seven minutes 42 seconds at the Irish Open, but came in at 7:58.
08 on his way to winning gold in Bangor, which he described as "pretty awful". "I've got these meetings coming up this week and if we see what happens," Wiffen told BBC Sport NI about his future. "I will get everybody's opinion and see what they say, and then we will go back to the drawing board, see what worked in the past, and we'll go and do that for the next part of the season.
" Andy Reid, the high performance director at Swim Ireland, said Wiffen "needs to take time to reflect on his season" and "work out what is best for him". "We've already had a conversation but we'll follow those up about where he needs to be," Reid said. "Not only for this summer, but with the World Championships next year and then the Olympic Games in LA.