Ireland's swimmers will have the last chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics when the 2024 Irish Open Swimming Championships and Olympic trials start on Wednesday at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.
The five-day event will see over 300 swimmers from 60 clubs compete for national titles in 34 individual events and for places on three senior national teams, including the European Aquatics Championships (50m) in June, the Olympics in July and the World Aquatics Championships (25m) in December.
The championships will be the final opportunity for swimmers to post an Olympic Qualification Time (OQT) for the Games, with places also to be decided at the event as to who will represent Ireland as part of their qualified Olympic relays.
Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry have already secured qualification times for Paris, while two relays, the women’s and men’s 4x100m medley, are within the top 16 ranking required by World Aquatics for an invite to be issued next month.
The 2021 Olympians Danielle Hill, Darragh Greene and Shane Ryan will feature at the championships, along with numerous strong contenders including Tom Fannon, Conor Ferguson, John Shortt, Victoria Catterson, Nathan Wiffen and Maria Godden.
In all events bar the longer distances, each will each have at least three opportunities across the competition to secure OQTs in their respective events.
The opening day of competition will see Hill and Ferguson go in the 100m backstroke heats with both requiring personal best swims to achieve the OQT of 59.99 (women) and 53.74 (men).
Daniel and Nathan Wiffen compete in the 800m freestyle; while Daniel has already hit the OQT of 7:51.65, Nathan will need to knock a further six seconds off his best of 7:57.79 to have a chance at joining his brother in Paris.
Ellen Walshe, who broke the 400m individual medley Irish record just 10 days ago, will compete in the 200m IM, an event in which she has already secured the OQT.
Other events taking place on Wednesday include the women’s 1500m freestyle, the men’s 200m freestyle and the women’s 200m butterfly.
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