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Displaying items by tag: Fitzsimons

#CANOEING: Pat O’Leary qualified for the final of the KL3 paracanoeing event at the European Sprint Championships in Racice in the Czech Republic today. O’Leary finished second in his heat of the 200 metre event. Barry Watkins and Michael Fitzsimons finished 2.82 seconds behind the winners, Lithuania, in the semi-final of the K2 1,000. This placed the Ireland crew sixth and ended their campaign as only the top three progressed to the final. Jenny Egan finished sixth in both her heat and semi-final of the K1 500. The top three in the semi-final qualified for the final. Egan is set to compete in the B Final.

European Canoe Sprint Championships, Racice, Czech Republic (Selected Results; Irish interest)
Men
K2 1,000 – Heat One (First Three Directly to Final): 7 M Fitzsimons, B Watkins 3:22.036. Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 6 M Fitzsimons, B Watkins 3 mins 18.868 secs.
Paracanoe, KL3 200 – Heat Two (First Three Directly to Final): 2 P O’Leary 44.208 secs.
Women
K1 500 – Heat Three: 6 J Egan 1:58.704. Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 6 J Egan (to B Final) 1:55.076.

Published in Canoeing

#CANOEING: Barry Watkins and Michael Fitzsimons finished sixth in their semi-final of the men’s K2 1,000 metres at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Moscow today, and must compete in the C Final. Jenny Burke finished fourth in her semi-fnal of the women’s K1 1,000 metres and qualified for the B Final.

Canoe Sprint World Championships, Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

K2 1,000m – Heat Four (First Seven to Semi-Final): 1 Australia 3:08.461; 4 M Fitzsimons, B Watkins 3:13.156. Semi-Final: 6 Fitzsimons, Watkins.

Women

K1 1,000m – Heat One (First Directly to Final; 2-7 to Semi-Final): 1 Hungary 3:53.854; 4 J Burke 4:07.379. Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; 4-7 and one best time to B Final): 1 Serbia 4:00.884; 4 Burke 4:15.147.

Published in Canoeing

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).