NI's Olympic champions struggle on medal-less Monday

NI's Olympic champions struggle on medal-less MondayImage source, Inpho and GettyImage caption, McClenaghan finished sixth in the pommel horse final and Wiffen fourth in the 800m finalByLauren McCannBBC Sport NI Journalist in GlasgowPublished2 minutes ago"Olympic champion is feeling rusty at the Commonwealth Games."It was the words of 800m freestyle Olympic gold medallist Daniel Wiffen, but they equally could have come from or been applied to fellow Olympic champion on the pommel horse Rhys McClenaghan.It was meant to be a magical Monday for Team Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games, with both Olympic champions in action.Among the headline names of the young squad sent to these Games, the expectation was that, given their previous winning pedigree, they would bring NI's first two gold medals in Glasgow.It was more mediocre than magic though as both struggled in their favourite events, so much so that they didn't even make it onto the podium, with McClenaghan sixth in the pommel horse final and Wiffen fourth in the 800m decider.McClenaghan was the architect of his own downfall, starting slow with his new routine and finishing even worse, but he was not too downcast by his performance and wanted to focus instead on how it was a step towards a bigger goal with the next Olympics two years away.He said that while the routine obviously "didn't go to plan", it was "another stepping stone to what's to come" on his journey back to the ultimate pinnacle of retaining Olympic gold.Wiffen too is building for two years' time, but was much more self-critical, stating that he "didn't know what was going on" with himself as he was outclassed by the strong Australian trio of Sam Short, Benjamin Goedemans and Matthew Galea."They [the Australians] have come to play and I haven't to be honest. I thought I would at least be a 7:42 time coming into this [he swam 7:48.82] and honestly I just felt a b...