Battling Egan Takes Fifth at Canoe Marathon World Championships

8th September 2018

Jenny Egan

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan showed great fighting spirit, but had to settle for fifth at the canoe marathon World Championships at Vila de Prado in Portugal today. Twice she bridged a big gap to a leading group only to miss out.

She led off the start but fell back after a bad first portage. A leading group of four then took over and seemed certain to have the medals sewn up. But Egan had other ideas. At the end of the second-last lap, the sixth, she produced a remarkable sprint to join a leading group of four, only for and inefficient portage to leave her behind again. And, remarkably, the final portage was similar – a big gap closed coming into it, but off the leaders emerging from it.

Vanda Kiszli and Sara Mihalik of Hungary took first and second, with Eva Barrios of Spain taking the bronze.

Barry Watkins finished 12^th in the men’s K1 race. Andrew Birkett of South Africa won an interesting race, from Adrian Boros of Hungary, with another South African, Jasper Mocke third. José Ramalho of Portugal recovered from a badly damaged boat to finish sixth.

Canoe Marathon World Championships, Vila de Prado, Portugal

Men – K1: 1 South Africa (A Birkett) 2:09.29.06; 12 Ireland (B Watkins) 2:11.45.97

Women – K1: 1 Hungary (V Kiszli) 2 hrs 6 min 16.4 sec, 2 Hungary (S Mihalik) 2:06.29.31; 5 Ireland (J Egan) 2:07.00.31.

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Liam Gorman

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Liam Gorman is a writer and reporter. He is the co-author of Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean, published in the United States and Canada as Crossing the Swell. He is the rowing correspondent of the Irish Times.

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