Danielle Hill finished fourth in the 50m backstroke final and also qualified for Saturday's 100m final on day four of the European Short Course Championships in Romania.
The Larne swimmer made a strong start to the 50m race, with the quickest reaction time and was third at halfway before finishing in a time of 26.33 - an Irish senior record - 0.51 seconds behind gold medal winner Kira Toussaint of the Netherlands and just 0.05 off the bronze medal position.
In the 100m backstroke semi-final, Hill was fourth fastest in her heat in another Irish record time of 57.73 and fifth overall as she qualified automatically for the final which will be held on Saturday evening, while Limerick's Maria Godden missed out on qualification after finishing 11th overall in a time of 59.26.
𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧 | (𝗪) 𝟱𝟬 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗞𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟
— Swim Ireland (@swimireland) December 8, 2023
SO CLOSE!
Danielle Hill touches in 26.33 to finish fourth place - just .05 behind bronze🤏
Hill breaks her one day old Irish Senior Record!
26.59 ➡️ 26.33#LENOtopeni2023 pic.twitter.com/FksFJ14IEP
Speaking after the 50m final, Hill was delighted with how it had gone despite narrowly missing out on a medal.
"I am so happy, someone again has to come fourth, but there's another record, so there’s nothing left in the tank, and that’s all I can do, so I’m happy," she said.
"The 100m tomorrow will be fun, it’s my last race of the meet so I just want to get out and go like I have been doing."
She also expressed satisfaction with her performances at the championships overall.
"It's been really good. It's nice to see that the work is finally paying off," she said.
"It's been a tough start to this season but this makes it all worth it."
Ellen Walshe, who has already claimed the 400m individual medley bronze medal, completed an impressive semi-final double on Friday evening.
She surged into the 100m butterfly final after finishing second in her heat with a 56.90 swim, before following suit with another second place in the 200m individual medley.
"I'm delighted to be back in both races, it was a tough morning and a tough evening this evening, but I’m looking forward to doing them one more time and hopefully will be a little bit better," she said.
Walshe will be joined in the 200m final by Ellie McCartney who was fourth in her semi-final heat and eighth overall in a time of 2:11.72.
"Coming in here all I wanted was a second swim, so to come out to my first ever European short course and make the final, I'm already finished top eight in Europe, so that’s quite an achievement whatever happens tomorrow night," she said.
Earlier, McCartney had impressed in the qualifying heats, touching in 2:11.99 to progress to the semi-final tenth overall.
In a situation not faced by Ireland previously, Ards' Grace Davison (2:14.36), despite finishing in the top sixteen, missed out on making the semi-final, with a rule in place that only two swimmers per nation can progress past the heats.
New Ross's Evan Bailey finished seventh in his semi-final heat of the men's 200m freestyle.
Competing at his first senior international meet, the 18-year-old set a time of 1:46.57, which ranked him 14th overall but an improvement on the earlier time from the heats - a personal best time of 1:46.65 - which had secured his first senior international semi-final in the first place this morning.
After the heats, he had said: "It’s great to be in against the guys in there, against all those seniors, it’s just a great experience, you learn so much, turns, underwaters, and can bring that home and work on it."
Max McCusker missed out on a place in the men's 50m butterfly final after finishing eight in his semi-final heat.
His time of 23.08 was marginally down on the 22.92 he set in the morning heats which had been good enough to advance in 11th overall.
Also, in action this morning, Lisburn’s Dylan Registe swam a personal best time of 24.37 in the 50m butterfly, while Terenure’s Liam O’Connor clocked 2:12.18 in the 200m breaststroke.
