Paris beckons as Rachael Darragh awaits Olympic Games confirmation

Rachael Darragh looks set to be confirmed for a place at the 2024 Olympic Games.

The Raphoe badminton player's spot in Paris is expected to be formally announced in the coming days.

The 26-year-old, a niece of three-time Olympic badminton player Chloe Magee, closed out the qualification period in 33^rd spot.

With 32 to take their places in the women's singles and with some counties likely to not take up their slots, Darragh seems certain to line up at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in late July.

Darragh and Nhat Nguyen are expected to compete for Ireland at this year's Olympics.

Darragh has been on tour over the past year in a bid to make it over the line to secure a place.

In April, she reached the last 32 of the European Championships, losing out 24-22 23-12 against Miranda Wilson after defeating Ksenia Polikaprova 21-23 21-15 21-17.

Also this year, Darragh has reached the quarter finals of the Madrid Spain Masters World Tour and last year hit a quarter-final in a super 100 level tournament, eight quarter-finals at challenge level and one semi-final at challenge level.

From April 2023-April 2024, players' best ten events count towards qualification.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Magee created history when defeating Kati Tolmoff from Estonia to become the first Irish woman to win a badminton match at the Olympics before losing out to Jun Jae-youn from South Korea.

Magee also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games in London and Rio.