Two-time Paralympian Patrick O’Leary has announced his retirement from Para Canoeing.

Patrick was, for his entire career, a fantastic ambassador for the sport, including representing Para Canoe and Ireland on the ICF Athletes Committee. Having had a series of top results across his career, including his 5th place, finish at the Tokyo Paralympics, 6th place in the Rio Games, and becoming European Champion in 2021, Patrick has made his mark on the sport.

Commenting on his retirement, Patrick spoke about the privilege it has been to pursue the highest honours in sport, and his aim to have his mark on the sport is as much about his reputation as a human being, as well as his results. ‘People won’t necessarily remember your achievements or results, they may even forget your name, but they will remember your reputation and the way you made them feel.’

Irish canoeist Jenny Egan has had a dream finish to the 2021 ICF Senior World Championships, coming away with a Silver medal in the K1 Women 5000m.

A close-fought battle took place around the 23-minute course, with Jenny paddling a near-perfect race, just missing out to Emese Kohlami of Hungary in a sprint finish. The tightest of margins separate the medals, with the top 3 finishers being split by 1.96 seconds.

Earlier at the championships, Jenny had a disappointing finish in the 500m event, exiting the competition in the semi-final round. This did little but light a fire under the Irish paddler, who came back strong to win her second medal of the 2021 season. The first coming in the ICF World Cup Race in Barnaul, where Jenny took another silver medal in the same 5000m event.

After a strong performance this afternoon, Irish canoeist Roisin Cahill (U23W) has taken home the gold in Cherbourg en Cotentin.

Roisin is a well-experienced competitor within this class, having won a silver medal at the U23 Worlds for Ocean racing earlier this year. Provisional results indicating that Roisin finished the 21km championship race with a time of 1:39:12.76, comfortably taking the win with an impressive +2.57.13 over her closest competitor despite the unfavourably flat conditions across the course on race day.

Speaking to Roisin about the race, coming into today's event, she had mixed feelings. While she had confidence in her preparation and abilities to perform at a high level. The low wind levels and smaller waves could not be ignored as they could easily have played out as a disadvantage and dulled the effort of Co.Clare native, with a wealth of experience on big Atlantic swells and powerful downwind.

Cahill, accustomed to a more explosive style of race instinctively changed strategy, setting out a fast rhythm and maintaining pace throughout the course, pushing through to the finish.

Cahill attributes a portion of her success today to K1 cross-training which prepared her well for these difficult and competitive conditions.

Congratulations to European Champion Roisin and team on a well-deserved win today after a strong finish!

There was a heart-breaking end to canoeist Liam Jegou’s quest for a Tokyo medal, finishing 15th in the Semi-final and not progressing to the Olympic Final.

A fantastic start to his racing was cut short with the tiny margins in Canoe Slalom, incurring two 50 second time penalties and dropping down the results list. 

It turned out to be an extremely difficult morning for Jegou. Having recovered from a stressful day in the heats, Liam was off to a great start in his semi-final race, posting the fastest times on the top 2 splits as he powered his way down the course in a very composed display of racing. As he neared the bottom of the course the tiny margins in Canoe Slalom became clear as he barely misjudged the next gate in the sequence, diving to get his head between the poles but incurring a 50-second penalty, throwing him off balance and too far from the next gate to complete it correctly, ultimately ending his Olympic Games.

Speaking about the race Liam said – "Maybe I had the final already in my sights, and you can't be doing that"

His form coming into these Games was clear, with a sixth place in the Final of the World Cup in Germany before flying to Tokyo. With the momentum from this, the plan was for not just a final but potentially a medal, making this result all the more difficult to take.

"I've been working really really hard for that final run and to get a chance to fight for an Olympic medal"

Jegou now turns his sights to the World Championships later this year in Slovakia.

Liam Jegou got his C1 Canoe Slalom campaign underway at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre posting a time of 174.57 in his first run of the heats after picking up a missed gate penalty.

“A shaky start I’ll call it,” said Canoeing Ireland Performance Director, Jon Mackey, after the first run “We dropped an edge mid-course, but had a lovely opening, the start of the course was nice and tight, nice and technical.”

Jegou has a second run later today, with Mackey adding: “It’s good to get the nerves out of the way on the first run and get a feel for it. I think he’ll come back a lot stronger in the second run.”

The top 15 after both runs are completed will progress to the semi-finals.

Ireland’s Roisín Cahill has taken silver in the Under-23 surf ski race at the ICF World Ocean Racing championships in Lanzarote.

The 22-year old from Clare, who used to be a high-performance swimmer, was ranked second at women's under-23 level behind Jade Wilson of South Africa after a race in lively and high seas.

Canoe ocean racing is contested in single and double surf skis, sea kayaks and single or six-person outriggers. Surf skis were initially similar to surfboards but modern, lighter versions can be made from composite layers of epoxy or polyester resin-bonded cloth such as fibreglass, Kevlar, carbon fibre or a mixture. They are usually five to six and a half metres long and only 40 to 50 centimetres wide.

Cahill says she loves the sport. “It’s the most fun - surfing waves at over 20 kilometres per hour! I also love the ocean and the wildlife, so it's a privilege to be able to train amongst it.”

Cahill, who is a biology and chemistry teacher, has been a lifeguard in Lahinch and has paddled near the Cliffs of Moher and the Skelligs. She has medals at European level in surf life-saving. She trains with Celbridge Paddlers in Kildare.

Ireland’s Tadhg de Barra also competed in Lanzarote, in the senior men’s class.

In a move for casual paddlers Canoeing Ireland has launched a new website with a wealth of useful information for everyone from first time or occasional paddlers to enthusiasts who are trying a new craft or looking for new challenges.

With an emphasis on water safety, the site offers easy to follow guidelines on the basic requirements for safe paddling. Our recognised activity providers and watersport retailers are listed with contact details for ease of access.

The extraordinary growth in popularity of paddlesports from stand up paddleboards to sit on top kayaks along with the more traditional craft is a good news story.

The information on safety and basic equipment required for safe paddling on the new site will make sure that everyone returns home safely at the end of a fun-filled day.

Seven Canoeing on the Water Safety Essentials

• Be Able to Swim
• Always wear a Buoyancy aid
• Never Paddle Alone
• Have a method of calling for help
• Let someone know where you are going
• Check the weather and water conditions
• Get some training or join a club

It is important to consider the essentials before you take to the water.

Patrick O’Leary has become European Champion at the Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe European Championships in Poznan -Poland.

Racing in the VL3 Final, Patrick got off to a brilliant start, trading the lead with Adrian Mosquera of Spain, eventually taking the win in a photo finish, 0.1 seconds ahead of Mosquera.

The win comes after a great performance in the qualification round of the VL3, finishing in 3rdplace in his heat on Thursday to qualify directly through to today's final.

O'Leary tops the VL3 Final scoresheet 

Patrick will race tomorrow afternoon again in the final of the KL3 200m, and will hopefully back up this sensational performance with another medal-winning performance. This result will give Patrick great momentum as he closes in on racing in this summers Paralympic Games, where he will again compete in the VL3 and KL3.

Patrick will race tomorrow afternoon again in the final of the KL3 200m

Elsewhere in the Canoe Sprint European Championships, Barry Watkins will compete in the B final of the K1 Men 500m and 1000m. With Jenny Egan contesting the K1Women 200m,500m and 5000m later in the weekend.

Irish canoeist Jenny Egan has won a silver medal in the 5000m at last weekend’s Canoe Sprint World Cup in Barnaul, Russia. The performance is made all the more impressive coming off the back of a huge disappointment for Egan, missing out on the final Olympic qualification spot just three days previously.

Egan has made a strong statement with a silver medal win, the brilliant performance was backed up by a seventh place finish in the A final of the 200m two days previous.

These back to back fantastic performances came following a huge disappointment in the final Olympic Qualifier, where after making the final to fight for the final qualification spot for Tokyo Jenny finished 9th in the final missing out on the Olympic spot, the spot being ultimately taken by Russia.

Not one to sit back after an upset, Jenny immediately came back to make the 200m final of the World Cup. And even more impressively, took the fight to the 5000m final, coming home in 2nd place, just shy of the gold in a nail-biting sprint finish with the German Paulina Paszek. This will be added to Jenny’s previous Silver and Bronze medals won in her signature 5000m.

Canoeing's Team Ireland is just home after a European Championships full of tight margins and near misses. An event that truly showed the cruel nature of sport with three incredibly near misses for Olympic Qualifications.

Amid the near misses, there was no shortage of fantastic performances to make these near misses possible, setting up what promises to be a very exciting season of racing for Canoeing Ireland.

The international season for Canoe Slalom got underway on May 6th with the 2021 European Canoe Slalom Championships. Not only an elite level championship this event also acted as the European Continental Olympic Qualifier, with a single Olympic spot up for grabs in each of the 4 categories being contested at the event.

Noel Hendrick competing in the K1 Men division

The newly selected Irish Team was filled with proven international performers eager to get into the fight for the final Olympic berths for Tokyo.

The key categories in which Team Ireland was chasing qualification were the K1 Men (Samuel Curtis, Noel Hendrick and Alistair McCreery), the K1 Women (Hannah Craig and Madison Corcoran) and the C1 Women (Michaela Corcoran).

Across all the racing in these categories the tightest by far was seen in the K1 Men, with the Olympic spot coming down to the wire between Noel Hendrick and Krysztof Majerczak of Poland. After a great performance in the qualification rounds Noel Hendrick rose again to the occasion with an even more impressive run the in the semi-finals, laying down a marker for the remaining athletes seeking Olympic qualification to chase.

Athlete after athlete in contention for the Tokyo spot came down and finished behind Noel in the standings, with the agonising wait coming to a close with Majerczak of Poland, the last athlete in the running for the Olympic berth, storming down the course to claim the qualification spot. While the ultimate goal of the Olympic games was not reached, it was nonetheless an extremely impressive performance from the young athlete, making a statement as to his current and future form.

In the Olympic battle for the K1 Women it was the experience of Hannah Craig (London 2012 Olympian) that came closest for Ireland. With Hannah's final placing of 32nd being just 0.8 seconds away from a spot in the semi final, and a chance to race against Naemi Braendle of Switzerland for the final qualification spot.

The C1 Women featured a similar story, with Michaela Corcoran incurring a 50-second penalty to take her out of the running for the Olympic spot in her category.
Outside of the Olympic qualification battle, Irelands already confirmed 2021 Olympian Liam Jegou was top of Irelands C1 Men. Liam showed his hard winter of training with a 10th place in the qualification rounds, going on to suffer penalties in the semi-final to finish in 30th overall for the event. The C1 Men team also put up a valiant fight to defend their silver medal from last years Euros, finishing in 5th place in the final, just one 2 second penalty away from a spot on the podium.

2021 Canoe Slalom European Championships & Olympic Qualifier Full results

K1 Men
Noel Hendrick - 24th Alistair McCreery - 37th Samuel Curtis - 44th

K1 Women
Hannah Craig – 32nd Madison Corcoran – 34th

C1 Women
Michaela Corcoran - 35th

C1 Men
Liam Jegou – 30th Robert Hendrick – 32nd Jake Cochrane – 38th