Ireland's six-strong team will travel to Helsinki for this week's European championships assured in the knowledge that "A" qualifying standard times will not be a pre-condition for Olympic selection.

Short course times, such as that attained by Nick O'Hare at the weekend raised hopes of good performances for the Dubliner on the bigger stage. He competes with greater optimism at the Scottish Open in Edinburgh next month following clarification yesterday by Swim Ireland that percentages of the "A" standard times still suffice for Olympic consideration.

This means that Colin Lowth, within point two of a second away from an "A" standard butterfly time and, equally close Chantal Gibney, in the freestyle, can concentrate, unperturbed, on improvement in Helsinki ahead of the OCI's ultimate acceptance of the Sydney personnel.

O'Hare said he was very pleased with his 23.1 and 50.8 for the 50 and 100 metres at the Aer Lingus gala at the weekend.