SWIMMING:AISHLING COONEY missed out on Olympic qualification by just 0.54 seconds when she took gold in the 100 backstroke at the Irish Long Course Championships and Olympic trials at the National Aquatic Centre at Abbotstown in Dublin.

Cooney (17), who is coached by Bill McCarthy at the ESB club in Dublin, came from relative obscurity to the brink of qualification for Beijing, and her Irish record-breaking swim was just outside the A qualifying standard of 1:01.70.

A pupil at St Louis High School in Rathmines, Cooney beat another Olympic hopeful, Melanie Nocher, who had to be content with silver in the 100 back.

But Nocher's main event is the 200 backstroke, in which she was ninth at the recent European championships at Eindhoven.

The heats of that swim take place this morning and the City of Belfast swimmer is confident she will make the A qualifying standard of 2:12.70 today.

"I'm not really a sprinter, so to get close to Aishling was good for my 200 today. I was under one minute three seconds for the race, so if I can repeat that and come home in one minute eight seconds, then I can make the Games," said Nocher.

"I am tapered for this meet, but I had problems with my legs last week when they seized up in training, but thankfully they have eased out."

Cooney, who will also swim the 200 backstroke heats, beat Nocher again yesterday when she won the 50 backstroke in an Irish senior record of 29.60, one of 20 Irish records broken so far at Abbotstown.

The evening concluded with the men's and women's 4x50 metres medley relays, and in both Irish records fell. The women's team from the City of Belfast won in 2:03.12, which cut over one-and-a-half seconds off the record held by Cormorant.

The Ards team were highly impressive in the men's equivalent, winning gold in 1:48.41, their second Irish senior record of the meet; they had also set a new standard in the heats.