Success for Wiffen twins at British University and College Sport Swimming championships (BUCS)

The brothers (22) competed in the event at Yorkshire from Friday (November 17), having only returned to the United Kingdom on Wednesday following altitude training in Flagstaff Arizona.

Refusing to allow any jet lag to hinder their performance, Daniel and Nathan stormed to the first and second places in the 1500m freestyle. Daniel broke his own BUCS record from last year with a time of 14:20.75 and Nathan improving his personal best by three seconds with a new pb of 14.48.69.

These swims rank Daniel and Nathan as first and fourteenth in the world this year in this event.

Day two did not disappoint the crowd with Nathan selected to compete in the 200m backstroke, an event he has not trained for in almost two years. Nathan secured sixth place just on his personal best with a time of 1:57.53.

Meanwhile, Daniel raced the 800m freestyle, in which he holds the European Short Course and Long Course Records. Powering through the water ahead of very strong competition, he secured another gold again breaking his own BUCS record with a time of 7:30.06. This swim again ranks Daniel as the world number one so far this year.

Day three saw both Daniel and Nathan competing together in the final again for the 400m freestyle. Daniel flew through the water leading at the front all the way to break Robbie Renwick’s 14-year BUCS record with a time of 3:39.57.

Nathan came home in fourth place with a new personal best time of 3:47.86, a three-second personal best improvement. This swim also ranks Daniel as the world number one in the 400m freestyle.

Daniel, who has competed at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, won overall top swimmer of the meet with Nathan ranked as the third best performer of the meet.

Next up, the brothers will be competing at the Rotterdam meet in two weeks as a warmup in preparation for both Daniel and Nathan to represent Ireland at the European Short Course Championships in Bucharest in December.