Daniel Wiffen believes he is finding form at the right time after advancing to the 800m freestyle final at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris.Wiffen, 25, posted his fastest time of the season on his return to the city where he won Olympic gold at the distance two years ago.He was third in his heat, clocking 7:44.86, an improvement on the 7:48.42 he recorded at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow a fortnight ago. His Irish record stands at 7:38.19.The Magheralin athlete has been working his way back towards his best after suffering appendicitis 14 months ago and said he was encouraged by the performance, particularly after a short turnaround from Glasgow.“I wasn’t sure what shape I was going to be in and if I’d make the final, so to drop a time like that after just a week of resting after Commonwealth Games, I’m really happy,” he said. “I even went out really quick to 400, so it’s good signs for the final.” Wiffen, who has spent the past 12 weeks training in Dublin after cutting short his move to California, believes he is beginning to see the benefits of that work after a difficult period.“You can see the progress we’ve made since trials, where I went 7:58, I’m 7:44 now,” he said. “I knew I was just going to have to go for it. Commonwealth Games was good before this because I kind of got back into the mentality I want to be in, in terms of racing my race.”His twin brother, Nathan, was in the same heat and finished in 7:57.08, just over two seconds outside his lifetime best of 7:54.60. Liam Custer also recorded a season’s best of 8:06.89, just 0.72 seconds shy of his PB, although neither swimmer advanced to Wednesday night’s final (7.03pm).Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry progressed to the women’s 100m breaststroke semi-finals, which take place this evening. The Sligo swimmer was second in her heat in 1:05.97, the second-fastest time overall, behind Britain’s Angharad Evans, who set a championship record of 1:05.45.Mona McSharry progressed to Tuesday evening's 100m breaststroke semi-finals. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho “I’m happy,” said McSharry. “Having gone a 1:05, I go, ‘Okay yeah, that’s fine, a good morning swim’. But I’m happy, I’m going to build on it tonight and hopefully go faster.”Ellie McCartney also reached the semi-finals, taking the final qualifying place under the two per nation rule after finishing 18th overall in 1:06.73. The Commonwealth Games 200m breaststroke bronze medallist was pleased to have improved her 100m form by almost a second.“I’ve struggled with the 100 breaststroke a bit throughout the later season, it wasn’t great in Glasgow, but to come here and improve my time by almost a second and get back for tonight, I’m really happy,” she said.McSharry and McCartney will compete in the semi-finals at 5.54pm, after Jack Kelly’s 100m breaststroke final appearance (5.47pm).World junior champion John Shortt also advanced to this evening’s men’s 200m backstroke semi-finals (6.03pm), qualifying ninth-fastest in 1:56.50 after finishing fourth in his heat.The 19-year-old Galwegian applauded Romanian rival Nathan Muratory, who broke Shortt’s junior world record with a 1:54.87 victory in the same heat.Shortt said he had focused on following his own race plan rather than being distracted by the competition around him. “It’s really just putting blinds down your lane and just swim your own race,” he said. “I didn’t try to go with anybody, I didn’t try to race anybody necessarily this morning, because there’s no point. It’s heats, you’ve just got to get back this morning and it felt like a pretty good swim. So, hopefully there’ll be a little bit more tonight.”There was disappointment for Ellen Walshe in the 50m butterfly. Despite winning her heat in 26.62, she finished 26th overall and missed the semi-finals. Rosalie Phelan was 55th in 27.36, with Alana Burns-Atkin 49th in 28.01.In the men’s 100m freestyle, Evan Bailey finished 32nd overall in 48.97, while Matthew Hamilton was 47th in 50.45. Ireland’s mixed 4x100m medley relay team of Lottie Cullen, Darragh Greene, Jack Cassin and Grace Davison narrowly missed out on the final, finishing 11th in a new Irish record of 3:48.34, just four hundredths of a second outside qualification.