Liffey Descent Set for Busy Sixtieth Birthday

11th September 2019

Jenny Egan

#Rowing: Jenny Egan and Jon Simmons of Salmon Leap Canoe Club defend their mixed K2 title at Saturday’s 60^th anniversary Liffey Descent, which starts from Straffan at 12 o'clock and finishes 32 kilometres later at the Garda Boat Club in Islandbridge.

Egan is going for a third consecutive victory in this category - in 2017, she paired up with brother Peter to win in a course record time of 1 hour 55 minutes. Also competing in this category are Deaglan O Drisceoil and Aisling Smith of Salmon Leap, who finished second in the world renowned Sella Marathon in Spain earlier this summer. Both are previous K1 winners.

It will be an eleventh “Liffey” for Egan, who is attempting to win selection for the Tokyo Olympics and spent the summer competing at races around Europe.

Peter Egan, who finished second in men’s K2 last year, goes in K1 this year. Tadhg de Barra and Donnacha Brennan, both from Thomastown Paddlers, look like the other main contenders.

Barry Watkins, another Salmon Leap paddler, won his first K1 title last year, but reverts to K2 this time, where his partner is previous K1 winner Neil Fleming of Celbridge Paddlers. This could prove to be the most competitive class of the day with a number of strong Irish boats as well as at least four entries from the UK, two from Argentina, and one each from Spain, the Czech Republic and Germany.

Among the local entries, former European junior marathon champion Ronan Foley teams up with Nikolai Thomsen of Denmark for his first attempt at senior K2, while Michael Brennan, winner of the open canoe singles last year, takes to the water this time with his Thomastown club mate Anthony Forristal.

After a long dry summer, last year’s Liffey Descent was the driest on record which meant times were slow and fewer recreational boats entered. This year, low water won’t be a problem, thanks to plenty of rainfall in the past few months which means the ESB can release a small flood. Spectators on the banks of the Liffey may have good entertainment on Saturday. Premium spots are at the bridge in Straffan just down from the start and at Lucan weir.

Published in Canoeing

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About The Author

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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