DANIEL Wiffen has been taking the swimming world by storm after he won two gold medals at the 2024 World Championships.
Although from Armagh, he has Enniskillen connections, with his older brother being the head coach of the Enniskillen Lakelanders Swimming Club. Ben Wiffen has been coaching the Lakelanders since 2022 and continues to help train both Ben and his identical twin Nathan when he can.
“Daniel’s success has been great, they are over at university in Loughborough, but when they come home, I do what they need me to do – coach sessions or write them sessions, that’s sort of my role in terms of their swimming,” Ben said.
Ben’s extremely close with his brothers and is very proud of how far they have come.
“We are all very close, swimming aside, we speak everyday. I’m such a supporter of them so its great they are doing so well, but even if they were not doing as well as they are, I would still be going to watch them,” Ben said.
“I also get a behind the scenes look at what a high performance sport is like currently. I’m more involved in a age group grassroots sport but obviously having that connection with the twins, a few things are coming up at the top level and I can apply that to my age groupers.”
The Lakelanders also welcomed the Wiffen twins in 2022 when they gave the swimmers stroke tips and spent time answering the swimmers’ questions on training, nutrition and mind set.
The local swimmers continue to support them and are cheering them on all the way.
“All the kids ask about Daniel and they watch his YouTube,” Ben said.
“The twins have also come up here and have met and done clinics with my swimmers, so its definitely a great bridge that can help me relate to the swimmers.”
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