Danielle Hill will swim for Ireland at the Olympics this summer after reaching a qualifying time at her final opportunity.
Hill set a time of 1:00.18 in the 100m backstroke, which was just inside the qualification standard of 1:00.25.
Her swim at the National Aquatics Centre in Dublin was also a new Irish senior record.
“It was now or never. I knew I had done the work and it was about remembering that,” she said.
“It was quite a nerve-wracking day. I had my dad on the phone on my way here and he was in tears before I had even been out.”
Hill had narrowly missed out on qualifying in April however a performance meet in Dublin offered her a final opportunity to make the Games.
The 22-year-old praised her coach Peter Hill and said reaching the Olympics was for everyone at Larne Swimming Club.
“I knew I just had to hang on and thank goodness the training has paid off,” she added.
“It means everything. I think for any athlete it is the pinnacle of their career and I am so proud to have represented Larne whilst doing it.
“Those guys at home, although I have ignored them all day because I was in my own bubble, their support has been outstanding. That was for them as much as it was for me.”
While there was joy for Hill, fellow Larne swimmer Conor Ferguson missed out on a qualifying time in the men’s 100m backstroke.
Ferguson’s time of 54.35 was more than half-a-second off the qualification time of 53.85.
Jack McMillan was also agonisingly close to the 200m freestyle time as his race-winning time of 1:47.11 was just shy of the qualifying by 0.09 seconds.
However the Bangor swimmer is expected to be part of the Irish 4x200m men’s freestyle relay squad who qualified at the recent European championships.
