Jack Kelly twice broke the Irish 100m breaststroke record on Monday to reach Tuesday’s final in Paris.
The New York native, who is Irish qualified through his mother, broke the record previously held by Darragh Greene in Monday’s heats with a time of 59.27 but bettered that in the semi-final with a finishing time of 58.90.
Kelly finished second in the race behind Italy’s 2024 Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi in 58.67.
“To go under 59 has always been a dream of mine and to actually see it on the board is just like ‘wow,” said 23-year-old Kelly.
“It’s been an awesome start to the meet and I’m excited to see what I what I do next.
“It was exciting, the energy was there and to feed off it was what I did, it’s been a really cool environment. I can hear the guys, they’ve been very supportive, we’re very close and I couldn’t wish for better teammates; the environment is great and something that is really cool to be part of.
“Tomorrow I’m going to take it out and go full throttle, that’s my thing in the 100 and see what I got.”
In the second semi-final, Great Britain’s Adam Ramsay-Peaty, who won silver at Paris 2024, came home first in 58.94, with his Team GB team-mate Filip Nowacki second in 59.03 – a 100m record for a Jersey swimmer.
The 100m breaststroke final will take place on Tuesday at 17:48 BST.
Meanwhile, a personal best was not enough for Belfast’s Lottie Cullen to secure her place in the 200m backstroke final.
The National Centre Ulster swimmer, representing Ireland, finished sixth in her semi-final with a time of 2:12.22.
