Danielle Hill progresses to 50m backstroke semi-final at World Aquatics Championships

Danielle Hill has qualified for the 50m backstroke semi-finals at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

The Larne swimmer finished fourth in her heat (13th overall) clocking 28.03, just .34 of a second off her Irish record of 27.69 and will swim in her first world championships semi-final at 12.36pm Irish time today.

Hill said afterwards: "I think waking up this morning, before even stepping foot in the arena, I was more confident. Whether that was a nervous swim on Monday (100m backstroke) or whatever it was, I had to move on pretty quickly.

"I felt like a completely different person in the water. I’m happy. It’s hard not to be inspired by the girls and Dan [Wiffen] of course, I’m in a much better place than I was 48 hours ago so yeah, I’m happy."

Wiffen swims in the men's 800m freestyle final at 12.02pm today.

Also, in action this morning in Japan, Shane Ryan made his championship debut in the 100m freestyle.

Ryan touched second in his heat in 49.04, for 33rd place overall. It was Ryan's second fastest time in the event, outside of his Irish record of 48.68.

He said: ‘I wanted to be a bit faster, get under 49 seconds, I got 49.0 which I can’t really complain about. I’m looking forward to the medley relay (on Sunday) because I think I know what I can fix there, get a 48.0 and help us have a really good shot to try and qualify that relay for the Olympics".

The World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka is the first of three opportunities for Irish swimmers to secure individual Olympic places, the second being the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar in February 2024, and the third being the Irish Open Swimming Championships in May 2024.

The top three teams in Olympic relay events in Fukuoka will confirm places for Paris,