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Displaying items by tag: canoe slalom

2022 is going to be a big year for Canoe Slalom, with a combination of a packed international calendar of racing and a particularly strong Irish Team setting the stage for a great year ahead. This busy season got underway at the European Championships, held in Slovakia from the 26th-29th May. For the slalom team, this was the first opportunity post team selection for the whole squad to line up and put down some pace markers for the season.

Day 1 of racing focussed on the K1s. A fast course set for the race turned the dial up for the entire field, with some extremely quick times being put down with some extremely fine margins making qualification a very competitive affair. Madison Corcoran was the first athlete lining up for the Irish Team in these championships, finishing the event in 28th position. At only 19 years of age Madison’s performance is a great portent of things to come. The K1 Men team were hoping to follow up on what was a very strong 2021 season and showed some excellent pace throughout the event.

Noel Hendrick was the top finisher, coming home in 32nd place, narrowly missing the semi-final with 2 gate penalties incurred. Alistair McCreery was the next best in 38th place, with some very consistent racing across the qualification rounds. Samuel Curtis was the final Irish athlete in 42nd, being dropped lower in the results with penalty seconds. Back racing in the afternoon these athletes teamed up to finish 17th in the K1 men's team race.

The Friday was the chance of the C1s to get out and kick off their 2022 campaigns.

In the C1 Women Michaela Corcoran exactly replicated her twin sisters performance, finishing in 28th. The always strong C1 Men were next up and proceeded to continue their excellent run of racing. Liam Jegou and Jake Cochrane both qualified through to Sunday's semi-finals, with Robert Hendrick showing great pace throughout the race, being hampered by time penalties. The C1 men again lined up together to show us their team racing pedigree, putting down a solid race to end the day with 7th in the team race.

In the C1 Men semi-final, the tough course set for the next round of racing proved a significant challenge for the entire field, with Liam Jegou and Jake Cochrane proving no exception. Both did themselves justice on what was a tight day of racing, showing great composure and grit through the pressurised race. Liam finished up in 16th position, with Jake landing in 19th, moved lower with 4 penalty seconds.

Published in Canoeing
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#Canoeing: Jake Cochrane and Eoin Teague made it through to the semi-finals at the canoe slalom World Cup Final in Prague. Teague, in the K1, and Cochrane in the C1, both qualified from their second runs. Liam Jegou did not in the semi-finals of the men’s C1. He came close in the first run and had three touches, incurring six seconds in penalties, in his second.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Noel Hendrick put in a solid performance in the men’s K1 semi-final at the canoe slalom World Under-23 Championships in Krakow, Poland, this morning. He had no touches, but his time of 91.46 seconds left him outside the top 10 who went through to the final. He finished 22nd.  

 Eoin Teague was off the pace in his run and was then thrown completely out of the reckoning at the finish when he misjudged gate 20 and was given a 50-second penalty.

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

K1 Semi-Final: 22 N Hendrick 91.46 seconds; 36 E Teague 144.24

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: David McClure finished fifth in the final of the K1 Surface event at the canoe freestyle World Championships in Sort in Spain. At the canoe slalom European Under-23 Championships, Noel Hendrick reached the semi-finals and finished 26th in Liptovsky Mikulas in Slovakia. The Irishman had touches on gates three and 17, incurring four seconds in penalties.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou, Sam Curtis and Aisling Conlan all had wins at the canoe slalom Irish Open at the Sluice Weir in Lucan today. Jegou, who travelled from his base in Pau in France for the event, was the top C1 paddler, while Curtis and Conlan won their K1 events. The Ireland selection event for the season will be held at La Seu d’Urgell in Spain next month.

Canoe Slalom Irish Open, Dublin, Sunday (Selected Results; results on best of two runs)

Men

K1: Sam Curtis 79.87 seconds. Junior: Adam Vaugh 93.82.

C1: Liam Jegou 81.76

Women

K1: Aisling Conlan 103.20.

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

#Canoeing: Noel Hendrick qualified for his first semi-final in a big event and went on to make the final at the canoe slalom European Under-23 Championships in Bratislava. The Irishman finished ninth. It was a breaktrough for the young K1 paddler.

 Liam Jegou also made it through the C1 semi-finals on Sunday.

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou finished 17th in the under-23 C1 semi-final at the European Junior and Under-23 Championships in Hohenlimburg, Germany today.

 The France-based competitor incurred a two-point penalty on the first gate, and while he did not touch or miss another gate his time put him three seconds outside the top 10, who qualified for the final.   

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou finished 14th at the canoe slalom World Cup Final in Tacen in Slovenia. The 20-year-old was less than a second from qualification from the semi-final. The course underwent major changes after building work failed: the number of gates was limited to 14. Jegou emerged with a season ranking in the World Cup events of 17th of the 103 competitors. He is in his first season on the circuit as a senior paddler.

Canoe Slalom World Cup Final, Tacen Slovenia (Irish interest)

Men

C1 Semi-Final: 14th - L Jegou 110.9 seconds.

Published in Canoeing
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Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

From the Baily lighthouse to Dalkey island, the bay accommodates six separate courses for 21 different classes racing every two years for the Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

In assembling its record-breaking armada, Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta (VDLR) became, at its second staging, not only the country's biggest sailing event, with 3,500 sailors competing, but also one of Ireland's largest participant sporting events.

One of the reasons for this, ironically, is that competitors across Europe have become jaded by well-worn venue claims attempting to replicate Cowes and Cork Week.'Never mind the quality, feel the width' has been a criticism of modern-day regattas where organisers mistakenly focus on being the biggest to be the best. Dun Laoghaire, with its local fleet of 300 boats, never set out to be the biggest. Its priority focussed instead on quality racing even after it got off to a spectacularly wrong start when the event was becalmed for four days at its first attempt.

The idea to rekindle a combined Dublin bay event resurfaced after an absence of almost 40 years, mostly because of the persistence of a passionate race officer Brian Craig who believed that Dun Laoghaire could become the Cowes of the Irish Sea if the town and the local clubs worked together. Although fickle winds conspired against him in 2005, the support of all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht clubs since then (made up of Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, National YC, Royal Irish YC and Royal St GYC), in association with the two racing clubs of Dublin Bay SC and Royal Alfred YC, gave him the momentum to carry on.

There is no doubt that sailors have also responded with their support from all four coasts. Running for four days, the regatta is (after the large mini-marathons) the single most significant participant sports event in the country, requiring the services of 280 volunteers on and off the water, as well as top international race officers and an international jury, to resolve racing disputes representing five countries. A flotilla of 25 boats regularly races from the Royal Dee near Liverpool to Dublin for the Lyver Trophy to coincide with the event. The race also doubles as a RORC qualifying race for the Fastnet.

Sailors from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man have to travel three times the distance to the Solent as they do to Dublin Bay. This, claims Craig, is one of the major selling points of the Irish event and explains the range of entries from marinas as far away as Yorkshire's Whitby YC and the Isle of Wight.

No other regatta in the Irish Sea area can claim to have such a reach. Dublin Bay Weeks such as this petered out in the 1960s, and it has taken almost four decades for the waterfront clubs to come together to produce a spectacle on and off the water to rival Cowes."The fact that we are getting such numbers means it is inevitable that it is compared with Cowes," said Craig. However, there the comparison ends."We're doing our own thing here. Dun Laoghaire is unique, and we are making an extraordinary effort to welcome visitors from abroad," he added. The busiest shipping lane in the country – across the bay to Dublin port – closes temporarily to facilitate the regatta and the placing of six separate courses each day.

A fleet total of this size represents something of an unknown quantity on the bay as it is more than double the size of any other regatta ever held there.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta FAQs

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland's biggest sailing event. It is held every second Summer at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is held every two years, typically in the first weekend of July.

As its name suggests, the event is based at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing is held on Dublin Bay over as many as six different courses with a coastal route that extends out into the Irish Sea. Ashore, the festivities are held across the town but mostly in the four organising yacht clubs.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest sailing regatta in Ireland and on the Irish Sea and the second largest in the British Isles. It has a fleet of 500 competing boats and up to 3,000 sailors. Scotland's biggest regatta on the Clyde is less than half the size of the Dun Laoghaire event. After the Dublin city marathon, the regatta is one of the most significant single participant sporting events in the country in terms of Irish sporting events.

The modern Dublin Bay Regatta began in 2005, but it owes its roots to earlier combined Dublin Bay Regattas of the 1960s.

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

The Channel Islands, Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland countrywide, and Dublin clubs.

Nearly half the sailors, over 1,000, travel to participate from outside of Dun Laoghaire and from overseas to race and socialise in Dun Laoghaire.

21 different classes are competing at Dun Laoghaire Regatta. As well as four IRC Divisions from 50-footers down to 20-foot day boats and White Sails, there are also extensive one-design keelboat and dinghy fleets to include all the fleets that regularly race on the Bay such as Beneteau 31.7s, Ruffian 23s, Sigma 33s as well as Flying Fifteens, Laser SB20s plus some visiting fleets such as the RS Elites from Belfast Lough to name by one.

 

Some sailing household names are regular competitors at the biennial Dun Laoghaire event including Dun Laoghaire Olympic silver medalist, Annalise Murphy. International sailing stars are competing too such as Mike McIntyre, a British Olympic Gold medalist and a raft of World and European class champions.

There are different entry fees for different size boats. A 40-foot yacht will pay up to €550, but a 14-foot dinghy such as Laser will pay €95. Full entry fee details are contained in the Regatta Notice of Race document.

Spectators can see the boats racing on six courses from any vantage point on the southern shore of Dublin Bay. As well as from the Harbour walls itself, it is also possible to see the boats from Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney, especially when the boats compete over inshore coastal courses or have in-harbour finishes.

Very favourably. It is often compared to Cowes, Britain's biggest regatta on the Isle of Wight that has 1,000 entries. However, sailors based in the north of England have to travel three times the distance to get to Cowes as they do to Dun Laoghaire.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is unique because of its compact site offering four different yacht clubs within the harbour and the race tracks' proximity, just a five-minute sail from shore. International sailors also speak of its international travel connections and being so close to Dublin city. The regatta also prides itself on balancing excellent competition with good fun ashore.

The Organising Authority (OA) of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Dublin Bay Regattas Ltd, a not-for-profit company, beneficially owned by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC), National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC).

The Irish Marine Federation launched a case study on the 2009 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's socio-economic significance. Over four days, the study (carried out by Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network) found the event was worth nearly €3million to the local economy over the four days of the event. Typically the Royal Marine Hotel and Haddington Hotel and other local providers are fully booked for the event.

©Afloat 2020