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Displaying items by tag: Liam Jegou

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou shone in the Irish Selection Races at the canoe slalom British Open at Lee Valley. The 23-year-old paddler was the fastest C1 competitor in the two runs on Saturday and again on Sunday. On the two Sunday runs, Robert Hendrick, who qualified the C1 for Tokyo, had a 50 second penalty for missing gate 12 in the first run and gate five in the second.

 The races were part of the process of choosing the Ireland C1 paddler for Tokyo. There is an appeals window, and an announcement of the nominee will not be made until later.   

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Robert Hendrick qualified for the semi-final of the C1 (Canadian canoe) at the canoe slalom World Championships at La Seu d’Urgell today.

 The Kildare man took 10th place in his second run – just inside the crucial cut-off point. Hendrick’s 99.03 seconds with no time penalties put him in 11th in the first set of results, but Italy’s Roberto Colazingari was then given a 50-second penalty for missing a gate and dropped out of the top 10. Hendrick had made it through.

 Hendrick will qualify Ireland for a place in the C1 in Tokyo 2020 if he can place in the top 11 nations in the semi-finals.

 Liam Jegou finished 13th, missing out on a qualification spot because of a two-second penalty for a touch on gate 11. Jake Cochrane, who was less than half a second outside qualification in the first run, did not do so well second time around and finished 49th. He missed gate five and incurred a 50-second penalty.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, La Seu d’Urgell, Spain (Irish interest)

Men

C1 – First Run (top 20 qualify directly): 26 J Cochrane 99.72, 38 R Hendrick 103.68, 46 L Jegou 106.38. SECOND RUN (top 10 to semi-finals): 10 Hendrick 99.03; 13 Jegou 99.62, 49 Cochrane 151.72

Women

K1 – First Run (top 20 qualify directly): 72 H Craig 182.68, 75 A Conlan 195.02, 76 C O’Ferrall 245.62. SECOND RUN (top 10 to semi-finals): 41 Conlan 133.13, 45 O’Ferrall 148.39, 51 Craig 174.61

 

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: The first run in the men’s C1 at the canoe slalom World Championships saw Jake Cochrane come closest to qualifying for the semi-finals. Cochrane had a fast, clear run to the final gate at La Seu d’Urgell, and even a touch here still left him in the hunt for a top 20 place. His time of 99.72 eventually placed him 26th. Robert Hendrick also had just one touch – on gate 20 – and finished 38th on this run. 

 Liam Jegou had a disapointing run, touching four gates and placing 46th.

 The second run comes later today.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, La Seu d’Urgell, Spain (Irish interest)

Men

C1 – First Run (top 20 qualify directly): 26 J Cochrane 99.72, 38 R Hendrick 103.68, 46 L Jegou 106.38.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Ireland’s Liam Jegou took bronze at the canoe slalom World Championships in Krakow, Poland.

 Liam Jegou looked well on course in the final of the C1 – only to touch gate 14. This pushed him out of gold medal place, but his raw time was so good that he finished third behind two France paddlers, Nicolas Gestin and Lucas Roisin.

Canoe Slalom Under-23 World Championships, Krakow (Irish interest)

Men, C1 Semi-Final: 4 L Jegou 93.79

Final: 3 Jegou 91.97.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou eased into the final of the men’s C1 at the canoe slalom World Championships this morning. The Ireland paddler delivered a fault-free semi-final in 93.79 seconds to place fourth of the 10 finalists.  

Canoe Slalom Under-23 World Championships, Krakow (Irish interest)

Men, C1 Semi-Final: 4 L Jegou 93.79

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Ireland will have three paddlers in the semi-finals of under-23 events at the canoe slalom World Under-23 and Junior Championships at Krakow in Poland. Liam Jegou finished 10th on his first run in the C1, though he made a mistake on gate nine and had to go at it a second time. Noel Hendrick and Eoin Teague also qualified from their first runs in the K1.  

Canoe Slalom World U23 and Junior Championships, Krakow, Poland (Irish interest; qualifiers)

Men

Under-23 C1, First Run: 10 L Jegou 100.89.

K1, First Run: 12 N Hendrick 96.08; 25 E Teague 99.15.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou put in a solid performance at the canoe slalom World Cup in Lee Valley today. The Ireland C1 paddler had a fault-free run and took 14th of the 30 competitors in the semi-final, missing out on a top-10 place by 2.4 seconds. His placing put him 10th of the competing nations – the top 11 nations at the World Championships in September will qualify a boat for the Olympic Games.

Canoe Slalom World Cup, Lee Valley, London (Irish interest)

Men

C1 – Semi-Final (First 10 to Final): 14 Ireland (L Jegou) 101.15 seconds.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou qualified for the semi-finals of the canoe slalom World Cup in Lee Valley in London today. He took ninth place in the second run, and will go off second of the 30 C1 competitors in the semi-finals on Saturday. The top 10 go through to the final.

Published in Canoeing

#Rowing: Jenny Egan had another podium finish at the canoe sprint World Cup today. Following a silver in Poznan last weekend, she took a bronze in Duisburg in her favourite event, the K1 5,000m. Two Australians took gold and silver. Ronan Foley was 15th in the men’s 5,000. Barry Watkins took sixth in the C Final of the men’s K1 1,000 and sixth in the B Final of the K1 500.

 In other canoeing news, Matthew McCartney took bronze at junior level at the canoe marathon World Cup in Norway in two events: the K1 22.6 kilometre and the K1 3,400m.

 Liam Jegou reached the final of the C1 at the canoe slalom European Championships in Pau, but missed out on the final.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Ireland’s Liam Jegou finished 24th in the semi-final of the canoe slalom World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. The C1 paddler incurred four seconds of penalties for touches on gate one and gate 10 which cost him his chance of making the top 10 and Saturday’s final.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Rio de Janeiro: C1 Semi-Final (First 10 to A Final): 24 Ireland (L Jegou) 110.04 seconds.

Published in Canoeing
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Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.