Course error costs Egan in drive for Euro Games medal
JENNY Egan was left extremely frustrated after a mistake in the course seriously hindered her drive for a medal at the European Games in Minsk.
Four years after she had finished fourth in the same competition in Baku, the Lucan kayaker again just missed out on a podium spot by just one place.
Lucan’s Jenny Egan saw her bid for a medal at the European Games K1 5000m seriously undermined by a mistake in the course.
Indeed despite a very encouraging start to the K1 5000m, Egan ended up finishing behind Slovakia’s Mariana Petrusova, Dora Bodonyi of Hungary and winner Maryna Litvinchuk of Belarus, having been severely disrupted by a deviation to the course after the race had started.
“It wasn’t a case that I didn’t perform, it was a mistake on the course that really cost me and that’s the most disappointing thing” Egan told The Echo.
“I got a really good start and was up into the lead group when we were coming up to the first turn. We always turn at buoys with red and yellow flags, and just as I was coming up to that, someone in a speedboat started telling us to go to a red buoy.
“I had to deviate my course and I dropped back from the top five to 12th. It cost me so much energy trying to make that back up.
“I can’t say that I would have finished among the medals if it hadn’t happened, but I certainly would have had a better chance.
“It was something completely out of my control and that’s what makes it so frustrating. It was very upsetting, but I just have to try and get over it and prepare for the World Championships next month” she said.
Despite this disappoint-ment, Egan did find some solace in her performances in their K1 500m and 200m contests in which she made the B Final of both.
A fifth place finish in the semi final of the former in a season’s best time of 1.52.671 propelled her through to the B Final in which she finished eighth just as she did in the 200m equivalent.
“The 200m and 500m are something I’ve been really working on so it was really nice to make the B Final in both” she said.
My time in the 500m was close to by PB of 1.51.166 and I had set that back in 2016, so I was really happy with that” she added.
Egan will now turn her attention to preparation for the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships tak-ing place in Szeged, Hungary from August 21-25.
As part of her training she will travel to Copenhagen for two weeks and to Hungary for a further three- there preparing on the very course for the World Championships.
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