Tanya Watson has become the first Irish female diver to qualify for the Olympic games, following her success at the FINA Diving World Cup in Tokyo.
Watson finished in 16th place in the preliminaries for the 10m platform event, a result which sees her progress to the semi-finals and secures her places at the summer Olympics.
The 19-year-old, who hails from Southampton but qualifies for Ireland through her Derry-born mother, finished with a score of 271.85 points, someway off her personal best and leaving her with room for improvement in the semi-final.
Watson said: "It has been a really emotional time for me and I just got it together at the right time.
"After this last year, from everything being postponed, and living away from home for so long, I am very grateful that I was able to qualify Ireland a spot for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"It wasn't perfect, I need to work on dive two [of five], but I am excited for the semi-finals and for what’s to come this summer."
Watson added: "I cannot thank enough everyone who helped me get here."
Meanwhile Ciara McGing just missed out on an automatic qualifying place, finishing in 23rd in the same event with a score of 240.95.
McGing must now wait until the middle of May to discover if she will be competing at the Olympics, when the allocation of unused qualifying places will go to world rankings.
Oliver Dingley, who represented Ireland at the 2016 Olympics, will be in action in the early hours of Wednesday morning where he hopes to secure his place in this summer games in the 3m Springboard event.
Dingley finished eighth in the Rio Olympics and will be confident of booking his seat this summer to Tokyo.
