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Displaying items by tag: European Games

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan took fourth in the final of the K1 5,000 metres at the European Games in Minsk, Belarus today.

 The race was won by local competitor Maryna Litvinchuk, who broke away early, with just Dora Bodonyi of Hungary for company. These two stayed at the head of the field and took gold and silver. Mariana Petrusova of Slovakia closed the gap to them and clung on for bronze.

 Egan pushed into the lead in the chasing group and tightened the gap, but she was too far behind the top three to be able to find a podium place.

 Ronan Foley finished 16th in his K1 5,000 metres final. The race was won in a sprint finish by Balint Kopasz of Hungary. He took on and beat leader Fernando Pimenta of Portugal just coming up to the line.

European Games, Minsk - Canoe Sprint (Irish interest)

Men

K1 5000 – Final: 16 Ireland (R Foley) 23:16.064

Women – K1 500 B Final (Places 10 to 18): 8 Ireland (J Egan).

K1 200 B Final (Places 10 to 18): 8 Egan.

K1 5000 – Final: 1 Belarus (M Litvinchuk) 24 min 52.258 sec, 2 Hungary (D Bodonyi) 24:53.003, 3 Slovakia (M Petrusova) 24:59.099; 4 Ireland (J Egan) 25:27.936.

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#Canoeing: Jenny Egan finished eighth in her two B Finals at the European Games in Minsk, Belarus. The Ireland paddler, who will go in the K1 5,000m later today, competed in the K1 500m and the K1 200m, both Olympic events.

European Games, Minsk - Canoe Sprint (Irish interest)

Women – K1 500 B Final (Places 10 to 18): 8 Ireland (J Egan).

K1 200 B Final (Places 10 to 18): 8 Egan.

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 #Canoeing: Jenny Egan qualified for the B Final of the K1 200 metres at the European Games in Minsk. The Ireland paddler took seventh in her semi-final. “I’m really happy to make the B Final in the K1 200m, it’s a big improvement from a few weeks ago at the World Cups. It was a good race, it was quite windy out there, quite a side wind so you had to adjust your technique to cope with the conditions. But I’m happy with it and through to the B Final of the 200 tomorrow,” Egan said. 

She has also qualified for the B Final of the K1 500 and will compete in the final of the K1 5,000m.

 Ronan Foley was eighth in his K1 200m semi-final and missed out on a place in the finals. He is set to race in the K1 5,000m on Thursday.

 

Published in Canoeing

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan will compete in the B Final of the women’s K1 500 metres at the European Games in Minsk, Belarus. The Ireland canoe sprint paddler finished fifth in her semi-final.

 Ronan Foley produced a personal best time in his semi-final of the K1 1,000 metres, though he missed out on the finals.

 

Published in Canoeing

#CANOEING: Jenny Egan finished fourth, in a photo finish, in the final of the K1 5000 metres at the European Games in Azerbaijan today. Egan was just .455 of a second off matching the bronze medal she achieved at the European Canoe Sprint Championships in the Czech Republic in May. That race was won by Maryna Litvinchuk of Belarus, who again took gold today in Baku. Britain’s Lani Belcher, who was second, and Renata Csay of Hungary edged Egan out of medal contention. Both were within .7 of a second of Egan’s time.

Earlier Jenny Egan finished sixth in the B final of the K1 500 metres, 15th overall. Andrzej Jezierski finished fourth in the B Final of the men’s C1 200 metres, 13th overall. Peter Egan finished 21st in the men’s K1 5,000 metres.

European Games 2015, Baku, Azerbaijan

Canoe Sprint (Irish interest)

Men

C1 200 – B Finals (Places 10 to 18): 4 A Jezierski 42.244 seconds.

K1 5000 – Final: 21 P Egan 23 mins 13.183.

Women

K1 500 – B Final (Places 10 to 18): 6 J Egan 2 min 11.396 seconds.

K1 5000 – Final: 1 Belarus (M Litvinchuk) 22 min 48.990 secs, 2 Britain (L Belcher) 23:05.625, 3 Hungary (R Csay) 23:05.851; 4 Ireland (J Egan) 23:06.306.

Published in Canoeing

#CANOEING: Ireland’s Andrzej Jezierski qualified for the B Final (places 10 to 18) of the men’s C1 200 metres at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan today. Jezierski finished sixth in his heat but improved to fifth in his semi-final. Jenny Egan will compete in the B Final of the K1 500, having qualified on Sunday. She made the semi-finals in the K1 200m but her eighth-placing there means she did not make it through to the A or B final. She is also set to compete in the K1 5000m straight final tomorrow.

Peter Egan and Simas Dobrovolskis finished eighth of eight in their heat of the K2 200m and did not qualify for the semi-finals, while Tom Brennan in the K1 200 made it to the semi-finals but finished outside the qualification mark for the A and B Finals.

European Games 2015, Baku, Azerbaijan

Canoe Sprint (Irish interest)

Men

K2 200 – Heat One: 8 P Egan, S Dobrovolskis 35:049.

K1 200 – Heat Two: 6 T Brennan 35.446. Semi-Final: 8 Brennan 36.191.

C1 200 – Heat One: 6 A Jezierski 42.339 seconds. Semi-Final One: 5 Jezierski 40.277

Women

K1 200 – Heat Three: 6 J Egan 42.843. Semi-Final Two: 8 J Egan 42.657.

K1 500 – Heat One: 6 J Egan 1:55.468. Semi-Final: 7 J Egan 1:52.536.

Published in Canoeing

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.