BADMINTON: After qualifying for next year’s Olympics badminton player Chloe Magee is taking a well-earned rest over the holiday period. Magee qualified for her second Olympic Games when she made the quarter-finals of the women’s singles at the Yonex Irish Open in Lisburn a few weeks ago.
There is still an outside chance she may also qualify for the mixed doubles with brother Sam.
“We are first reserves at the moment but to qualify, we really need to produce good results at two or three tournaments. I’m concentrating on training for the singles at the moment, so if the mixed happens, it happens,” says Magee. She plays her first tournament of 2012 at the end of January.
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| Jenny Egan (Salmon Leap) |
CANOEING: With Olympic qualification in mind, canoeist Jenny Egan returns to Florida for another few months of training early in the New Year. Egan, from the Salmon Leap club in Leixlip, has competed for Ireland on both sprint and marathon racing circuits, with her best result coming at the World Sprint Cup at Liberec, Czech Republic last Spring where she finished second in the 5000m. With this distance not part of the Olympic programme, Egan is now concentrating on improving her times in the 500m and 200m sprint distances, with the final qualification tournaments taking place in Poznan, Poland next April. Just 15 places are on offer in the women’s K1 class.
Last August, Egan produced a best ever result for Ireland when she finished 18th in the 500m at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Hungary, setting a new Irish record of 1 minute 52.768 seconds along the way.
Also likely to compete in a K2 boat are Egan’s brother Peter with Neil Fleming of Celbridge Paddlers, winners of the K2 class at the Great Outdoors Liffey Descent this year. They will compete in the 200m and 1000m distance races on offer to men.
HOCKEY: Because of the men’s Olympic qualifier starting at Belfield on March 10, no club hockey will take place that weekend to sensure the best possible turn-out for the Belfield tournament. Ireland open their campaign with a match agains Russia on March 10. They then play Ukraine a day later and after a day’s rest, face Korea on Tuesday March 13 and Malaysia in the final round of pool matches on Saturday March 17 – St Patrick’s Day. Finals take place on Sunday March 18. Details of ticket sales at www.hockey.ie.
SWIMMING: Want to take up swimming in the New Year? Atlantis Swimming Club, based at the Markiewicz Swimming Pool in Dublin’s city centre, already has a active and enthusiatic membership that competes at national, junior and senior levels. Star of the club is Botonde Solmossy, the current Irish master 50m freestyle champion. Training takes place six days a week under the supervision of head coach Nicky Burke and new members are always welcome. Info www.atlantissc.org; info@atlantissc.org.
TRIATHLON: Following the usual winter break, multi sports action resumes with a series of duathlons all over the country in the month of January. In the Leinster area, Punchestown is the venue on January 22 for the first in this the 2012 Naas Dauthlon series with races also taking place on February 19 and March 25. On February 3, the first in the Fingal Series takes place at Ring Commons in north Co Dublin, with further rounds on March 3 and March 31. DEtails www.irishtriathlon.com
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