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Watson is the first female diver to represent Team Ireland at an Olympic Games.

The 19-year-old faced 29 of the world’s best in the preliminaries on Wednesday morning but dived well throughout the round to score a total of 289.40 points across her five dives, which saw her finish 16^th overall.

Watson posted scores around the 60 mark with each of her dives and was rewarded with a semi-final position for her work.

Her first dive, a back two-and-a-half somersault, earned the diver her highest marks with a score of 62.40.

The divers with the top 18 scores in this round progress to Thursday morning’s semi-finals, and the top 12 scorers in those semi-finals will compete for the Olympic medals in the Final later that day.

Watson will have the opportunity to be one of those 12 in her first appearance at the Olympic Games.

“I feel great, and just excited to go out there again and do my dives and get through again tomorrow,” Watson said.

“My first dive was pretty good for me, everything was consistent, so all my dives were on the head. My plan into the semi-finals is that I personally want to enjoy it again.

“I did really good diving today, so I’m really excited to find that again. Also tomorrow, I want to work on my entries into the water.”

Damian Ball, National Head Coach for Diving, was impressed with Tanya’s performance and praised her consistency.

“Consistency is key in these moments and that’s exactly what Tanya showed today, she competed with a cool head with solid dives,” Ball exclaimed.

“Today’s score was 18 points higher than the score Tanya achieved to qualify for the Olympic Games.  We are looking forward to tomorrow’s semi-final and will fight for a spot in the finals .”

The semi-finals begin at 2 am Irish time at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

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Tanya Watson qualified for the Women’s 10m platform and will be one half of the Irish Olympic diving team.

Rio 2016 finalist Ollie Dingley will be going to his second Olympic games and will compete in the Men’s Springboard 3m event.

“Firstly, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who made this possible. It’s a real privilege to represent Ireland at my second Olympic Games,” said Dingley.

“I feel very lucky that we can get to go and compete at the Olympics after what has been a very uncertain time for everybody.

“This will be my third competition in over two years, and I really just can’t wait to get out there and compete and do my best.”

19-year-old Tanya Watson will be looking forward to this summer’s Olympics too.

The Southampton-born diver qualified after getting into the Top 18 of the FINA Diving World Cup in Tokyo.

Team Ireland has also made history by sending more than one diver to the Olympics for the first time, according to Swim Ireland Performance Director John Rudd.

“We’re all thrilled to see this talented team of two selected to compete in diving at the Games, particularly as this is the very first time we’ve ever fielded more than one diver at an Olympics – as well as Tanya having the honour of being our first-ever female Olympic diver….we can look forward to some exciting days of competition in the Olympic weeks ahead,” said Rudd.

Tanya progressed from Ireland’s Youth Olympic team of 2018 and has added more great performances and accolades to her name since reaching the final in Buenos Aires.

28-year-old Ollie Dingley has a notable amount of accolades too, including the Irish record for the 1m and 3m Springboard.

Team Ireland Chef de Mission for Tokyo 2020, Tricia Heberle, is excited to see the divers in action.

Heberle said: “We know it has been a challenging qualifying pathway and we are very excited to support them both.”

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