Melanie Nocher is hoping to make the Olympic standard at the European Championships in Hungary

Melanie Nocher is through to this evening’s 200 metre backstroke semi-finals at the European Swimming Championships at Debrecen in Hungary.

The Irish record holder is chasing the Olympic A qualifying time for the event and was third in her heat in a time of 2.13.09 which put her into tonight’s last 16 as the eighth fastest qualifier.

Nocher, who swam at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, is targeting a sub 2.10.84 swim to make the London games and the Europeans is her last chance to qualify with the cut-off date of 31 May approaching.

Beth Carson (50m butterfly), Karl Burdis (100m backstroke) and Nuala Murphy (400m individual medley all failed to progress from this morning’s heats.