MARATHON CANOEING: Neil Fleming of Celbridge Paddlers continued his recent winning streak when he won both the men’s K1 and with Peter Egan the men’s K2 titles at the Irish Marathon Canoe Championships on Leixlip Lake. Last month, Fleming produced the best performance of his career so far when he finished second at the Marathon World Cup in Denmark and he was the dominant paddler at the weekend.
In the K1 race, he beat his doubles partner Peter Egan of Salmon Leap, with English visitor John Simmons in third place. A day later, over the same 16km course, he paired up with Egan to win the K2 title in style.
Behind them came Simmons and many times K1 champion Gary Mawer, with Pedro Lopez and Dermot Hudson in third place and the pairing of Malcolm Banks and Liam McCarthy best of the masters. Jenny Egan, who only narrowly missed out on London 2012 qualification, was out on her own in the women’s K1, although Kate McCarthy of Salmon Leap, winner of both under 15 K1 and K2 (with Kilcullen’s Tori Keogh) titles, is clearly one for the future.
Brothers Tony and Paul Forrestal from Thomastown Paddlers won the U23 K2 title, Sean McCarthy and Barra O Casaide were best under 18, while Mark Slattery and Brian O’Neill won the under 15 title.
SLALOM CANOEING: With Eoin Rheinisch off to the London Olympics, the hunt is already on for his successor. One to watch is 16-year-old Liam Jegou, who just missed out on a medal in the C1 class at the World Junior Canoe Slalom World Championships in Wausau, USA.
After qualifying easily from the heats and semi-finals, Jegou finished 4.5 seconds behind the leader and had to settle for fourth place when he picked up two penalty points for hitting a gate. Now based near the Swiss border in France, where there are lots of big rivers, Jegou spent the first seven years of his life in his mother’s native Galway. Last year he took a bronze medal at the European Teen Cup World Series and, after winning French title a few weeks ago, hopes to do better when he returns to the Teen Cup Series next month.
Another promising performance at the World Junior Championships came from Aisling Conlan who made the Under 23 women’s C1 finals, but missed a gate and finished ninth.
TRIATHLON: Aileen Morrison completes her preprations for London 2012 when she competes in tomorrow’s Hamburg Triathlon in Grmany. With Great Britain’s Helen Jenkins and Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig not competing Morrisson could snatch a win in her final race before London. In total, 25 of the women who have qualified for London will be in action including a strong Australian team led by last year’s winner Emma Moffatt, and local star Anne Haug, who was fourth at the Madrid World Cup.
BADMINTON: A South African badminton team of four has arrived in Lisburn to fine tune their preparations for the London Olympics.
Michelle Edwards, in her third Olympics, and Dorian James, who made the team for Athens, will compete in the women’s doubles, while the brother-sister combination of Willem and Annari Viljoen make their Olympic debut in the mixed doubles. Both teams are ranked inside the world top 50 and qualified from Africa to play in the Thomas and Uber Cups last month in China. Supervising their training is national coach/manager Stewart Carson, a veteran of the Athens Olympics.
After training in Lisburn Rackets Club for four days with local players, the team will re-join the South African squad for the London 2012 opening ceremony next week. The draw for the badminton tournament takes place Monday July 23 (12 noon).
After training in Lisburn Rackets Club for four days with local players, the team will re-join the South African squad for the London 2012 opening ceremony next week. The draw for the badminton tournament takes place Monday July 23 (12 noon).
* An Irish badminton team of three headed off for the London Olympics yesterday (Sat). Scott Evans and Chloe Magee , both veterans of the Beijing Olympics, begin their campaigns in the singles comeptitions next Saturday July 28. Also travelling was Sam Magee, who will “spar” with the two players until the Games begin, along with coaches Dan Magee and Jim Laugeson. Team manager is Richard Vaughan.
SWIMMING: Steve Redmond from Ballydehob, Co Cork, is back in Ireland after becoming the first person to complete the Oceans7 Challenge – a grand slam of the world’s toughest endurance swims.
Redmond began his journey three years ago when he swam the English Channel and then the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland – a cold water swim only 12 swimmers have ever completed.
Next was the comparatively easy Gibraltar Strait between Spain and Morocco before the hard work really began. Last year, he swam the Catalina Channel off California and then the Molokai Channel in Hawaii after two attempts. He had warmed up for that effort by becoming the first person ever to swim around the Fastnet Rock – 26 miles starting from Baltimore and finishing in Schull.
That left the Cook Strait between the north and south islands of New Zealand, and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan – a daunting 20km swim that took him 14 hours 24 minutes to complete.
ORIENTEERING: Conor Short of the CNOC club produced the run of his career to finish 25th in the men’s middle distance final at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Slovaika. He finished the 4.8km course in 32 mins 31 secs – only 3 mins and 18 secs behind the winner Matt Ogden of New Zealand. In the B final, 3ROC’s Colm Moran finished 27th, while in the C finals, Áine McCann finished 4th.
RUGBY LEAGUE: Ashbourne Stags host rugby league’s finals next Saturday July 28 after a last gasp win over Portarlington Wolverines in the semi-finals. They face Athboy Longhorns, who had an easy win over Clondalkin Crusaders. The winner will book a place in the Rugbyl League Ireland semi-finals, where they will face the Ballynahinch Rabbitohs, winners of a fourth Ulster title last week.
In the third place play-off, Dublin City Exiles face a Wolverines team determined to avenge their only defeat of the season. Opening the day is a fifth place play-off between Clondalkin Crusaders and Ballyfermot Bears.
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