2021, 2022 and the Commonwealth Games

COVID hit in March 2020 where the boys managed to stay swimming in the performance centre until the Olympics was cancelled and the National Aquatic Centre was closed.
During lockdown at home, they continued swimming in a paddling pool with a tether, coached by Martin over Zoom, who had moved to work in Dubai. They also participated in S&C sessions with the Performance Centre and Swim Ireland over Zoom.
They returned for a brief period back to the performance centre and then moved to Loughborough University to study Computer Science, with the swimming programme coached by Andi Manley.
Since his move to Loughborough Daniel has continued his success. At the recent Stockholm Open in 2022 he smashed the Irish record in the 1500m and also the 400m Freestyle with a time of 3:48.75 allowing him to quality for the World championships in Budapest.
In the FINA World Championships in Budapest 2022, Daniel smashed the own 800m freestyle Irish record again with a time of 7:46.32 and finished 8th in the final. Daniel went on to break is own Irish record in the 1500m freestyle and became the first Irishman to go under 15minutes with a time of 14:57.66.
At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Daniel narrowly missed out on the 400m bronze medal by 0.13s again recording another Irish record breaking time. However, he was not to be denied the medal in the 1500m where he posted a lifetime best of 14:51 and finished in second place claiming the silver medal.

Coming home with a Commonwealth medal!

Great to see family and friends in Birmingham and then back home in Magheralin and Moira

Breaking Records 2022

The 2022-23 season was Daniels best ever swimming season. His racing trajectory jumped up a gear as he propelled himself into the upper echelons of distance swimming.

Short Course Season 2022

Over a number of meets including Berlin Sheffield and the Irish Winter championships Daniels 400m free time dropped 4 times, setting new Irish records each time, finishing with a time of 3:38.40.

The 1500m freestyle was spectacular, dazzling the crowd at the Edinburgh open swim meet in December, Daniel produce a time of 14:14:45, ranking him 1st in the world for 2022 and 6th fastest ever in the event. He even broke his own Irish record in the 800m freestyle in the split, only to break this again the following week at the Irish Winter championships. Daniel also picked up a new Irish record for the 400IM, and event he had not sum for a number of years.

His 800m freestyle was no less spectacular, dropping three times to culminate with a time of 7:25.96 at the Irish open championships in Dublin December 2023 setting a new European Record, only 2.5 sec off the world record. This is the first time an Irish Swimmer has ever set a European Record. This swim was the fastest 800m swim in the world in 2022 and the 4th fastest swim ever in world history.

Daniel also set new BUCS records in the 800m and 1500m SC events and was awarded swimmer of the meet.

Long Course Season 2023

Daniel eased into the long course season with a 15:00.44 in Stockholm (January 2023) and continued to train hard setting new BUCS records in the 800m and 1500m freestyle. He then compete in the Stockholm Open Meet. This was a tough competition where he raced the 400, 800 and 1500m in three consecutive days. Daniel came away with PBs and Irish records in all three events, but his 1500m freestyle singled him out as it was the fastest time produced in 2023. This swim also ranked Daniel 4th fastest in the world ever in this event. Although Wellbrock broke this by 0.02 seconds 2 days later, it suggests the world championships in Japan will be something special.