Danielle Hill becomes fourth Irish swimmer to book Olympic ticket

"I know where I was nine months ago, ready to walk away from the sport."

Danielle Hill celebrates swimming the qualifying time for the Paris Olympics during the women’s 100m backstroke final. Picture: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

On the first evening of the Irish Open Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials, Danielle Hill became the fourth Irish swimmer to set a qualification time for this summer's Games.

The 24-year-old from Larne set a new Irish and championship record of 59.11 in the 100m backstroke. She also became the first Irish woman to go under the one-minute mark in the event which has an Olympic qualifying standard of 59.99

She joins Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry in achieving qualifying times for Paris. 

The time also puts her in a strong position for a place on the women’s 4x100m medley relay.

"We all know what happened last time (Tokyo), I was so narrowly close," said Hill.

"I think this time, I had that 59.99, the first Irish woman to go sub one minute, and I just wanted to cement it, I didn’t want any questions asked, I just went for it and thankfully dipped under."

She said that qualifying for her second Games was "probably a little bit more special than the first, because I know where I’ve been the past two or three years".

"I know where I was nine months ago," she continued, "ready to walk away from the sport. This to me is a relief, but I’m ready to go again now."

In the men’s 100m backstroke, Conor Feguson touched the wall in 54.12, just 0.38 outside the Olympic standard. He will have another opportunity to lower that time in Thursday's super final.

On Wednesday morning, world champion Wiffen set a new championship record in the 800m freestyle, just ten minutes after his twin brother Nathan had broken his own 2023 championship record of 8:03.79 in a personal best swim of 7:56.40. The Wiffen twins will go again Thursday's 800m freestyle final with Nathan targeting the Olympic standard of 7:51.65.