Noel Hendrick secures second quota spot for Ireland at 2024 Olympics in canoeing

Canoeist Noel Hendrick has followed in his twin brother Robert's wake by securing another 2024 Olympic quota spot for Ireland.

While Robert Hendrick booked a spot at next year's Paris Games in the C1 category on Friday, Noel followed suit on Saturday in the K1 after claiming 16th place in the semi-final at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in Waltham Cross, England.

The Kildare native finished with a total time of 97.20 seconds, 6.24 off the leader, which may not have been enough to advance to the K1 final reserved for the top 10 but was enough for Ireland to have a spot in the discipline at the next Olympics.

"To finish 16th was a big dream for me, and then to qualify for the Olympics was probably something I dreamed about for the last 10 years in my life and it felt very surreal that 10 years of my life had come down to 97 seconds on the course, and it was a huge amount of pressure and I'm just absolutely delighted to work through it and put down that performance today," he said.

Ireland is also provisionally in line to have an Olympic quota spot via the 2023 European Games in the women's K1 category, through Madison Corcoran, who was ranked 52nd after the semi-final stage at Waltham Cross.

The quota spot will be decided on countback from qualified nations at the current World Championships.

QUALIFIED FOR THE PARIS OLMYPIC GAMES!! ☘️