#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.

#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.

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou finished 14^th 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 17^th 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: 14^th - L Jegou 110.9 seconds.

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou topped the rankings in his first run and qualified directly for the semi-finals at the canoe slalom under-23 World Championships in Krakow in Poland. The Ireland C1 competitor had a fault-free round in 83.55 seconds. Ireland’s two other contenders in this class fell outside the qualificaton mark: Robert Hendrick missed gate 10 and incurred a 50-second penalty in an otherwise steady run. Jake Cochrane touched gates 12 and 14 and then missed gates 17 and 18, to finish 60th. Hendrick finished 15th in his second run and Cochrane 27th. 

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Under-23 and Junior, Krakow, Poland (Irish interest; selected results):

Men

Under-23 C1 – First Run (20 qualify directly for semi-finals): 1 Ireland (L Jegou) 83.55 seconds; 54 R Hendrick 141.89; 60 J Cochrane 200.64. Second Run (10 qualify): 15 Hendrick 94.87; 27 Cochrane 100.74.

Junior C1 – First Run (20 qualify): 41 Ireland (E Moorhouse) 120.92; 49 F McNally 164.94. Second Run: 20 McNally 113.71; 34 Moorhouse 162.06.

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou (20) took until his second run to master a tough course at the canoe slaolm Irish Open at Lucan today. The C1 competitor lowered the time of his first run by over 10 seconds, setting a winning mark of 90.81 seconds. Mike Kurt, the Swiss international who set the pace in the K1, also struggled on his first run on a course where two upstream gates below the sluice tested all the competitors. Kurt nailed it on the second run, with the best penalty-free time of the day – 89.08 seconds. Ciarán Heurteau, recovering from injury and a break from the sport, was the best Ireland senior competitor, being credited with 95.01 seconds, which included four seconds in penalties. Sam Curtis was bang in form at under-23 level: his first run was a winning one of 90.56 seconds. He bettered the time in the second run (88.64) but was adjudged to have touched one gate and missed another, so incurring 52 points in penalties.

 Hannah Craig was the top woman competitor in the senior K1, while Caoimhe O’Ferrall set an excellent time of 121.92 in the C1, though she is just 18.  

Canoe Slalom Irish Open, Lucan, Sunday (Selected Results)

Men

K1 – Senior: 1 M Kurt 89.08, 2 C Heurteau 95.01, 3 P Hynes 110.55. Under-23: S Curtis 90.56. Under-18: L Palmer 105.42. Masters: A Boland 114.79. Vets: G Collins 135.86.

C1 – Under-23: 1 L Jegou 90.81, 2 R Hendrick 99.25, 3 J Cochrane 101.34. Under-18: E Moorhouse 124.24. Under-16: F McNally 121.7

Women

K1 - Senior: H Craig 109.13. Under-23: G Ridge 108.5. Under-18: M Hamer Evans 109.06. Under-16: K Davidson 128.4.

C1 - Under-23: C O’Ferrall 121.92.

#Canoeing: The top Irish competitors in canoe slalom will be in action at the Irish Championships at the Sluice Weir in Lucan this Saturday and Sunday, March 5^th and 6^th.  The races at the redeveloped Sluice Weir in the Lucan Demesne/St Catherine’s Park, will double as selection races for the Ireland senior and junior international teams for:

• The Senior European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas, (Slovakia) in May.
• The five-event World Cup series in Ivrea (Italy), La Seu d’Urgell (Spain) and Pau (France) in June and in Prague (Czech Republic) and Tacen (Slovenia) in August.
• Junior and Under 23 World Championships in Krakow (Poland) in July and European Championships in Solkan (Slovenia) at the end of August.

 The Senior European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas will also count as the final qualification event for places at the Olympic Games.   Only one  place is available in each class to European countries who have not yet qualified.

 Racing on both days will feature London 2012 K1 finalist Hannah Craig, who is entering her second season back to competition following the birth of her son Arlo in May 2014. Hannah has spent the winter at the artificial whitewater course in Nottingham, England in preparation for the 2016 season.  

 Competing in the C1 category will be Liam Jegou who took 6th place in the Under 23 European Championships in Krakow last year and got semi-final placings in two of his three World Cup races and in the World Championships in his first season of senior races. He has just completed a winter-training bloc on the artificial whitewater course in Al Ain, Dubai.

 Robert Hendrick will double-up with his brother Noel in the Under 23 C2 class over the weekend, having taken 4th place in the Junior World Championships in Brazil last year.

 In the K1M class, Ciarán Heurteau is coming back to Ireland from a two-month intensive winter training bloc in New Zealand to compete for a place at the European Champs and Olympic qualifier after being out of competition last season due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury which required surgery and rehabilitation.

 To provide a good benchmark to assess selection performance levels, Canoe Slalom Ireland are bringing in Mike Kurt (30th in men’s kayak world rankings and semi-finalist in the 2015 World Championships) from Switzerland. The Welsh junior and under-23 team will also take part.

#ROWING: Sanita Puspure and canoeist Liam Jegou are among eight athletes who have been chosen by the Olympic Council of Ireland as recipients of Rio Scholarship programmes. The recipients will be supported from a fund of over €100,000 which comes courtesy of the OCI in association with the International Olympic Committee’s solidarity programme.

Jegou took silver at the Canoe Slalom Junior World Championships this year and was fourth at the European Junior Championships.

Puspure, a single sculler, took fourth place at the World Rowing Championships and a bronze medal at the European Championships. In her World Cup campaign, she made the A Final in Aiguebelette, and won the B Final at Lucerne.

The full list of athletes receiving scholarships is: Chloe and Sam Magee (badminton mixed doubles): Sanita Puspure (rowing); Liam Jegou (slalom canoeing), Bryan Keane (triathlon), Lisa Kearney (judo), Andrew Smith (gymnastics) and Natalya Coyle (modern pentathlon).