Egan back in hunt for World Sprint honours

JENNY Egan will be hoping to pick up where she left off in international competition prior to this summer when she lines out in this week’s ICF Senior Canoe Sprint World Championships in Copenhagen.

Contesting both the K1 500m and the K1 5000m in the Danish capital, the Lucan kayaker will be heading into this event off the back of her superb silver medal win in the Women’s K1 5000m at the ICF Senior Canoe Sprint World Cup in Russia back in May.

Egan followed that up with a gutsy performance at the European Sprint Championships in Poznan, Poland where she managed a fourth place finish despite suffering a terrible start.

Now returning to the World Sprint stage, she will be hoping to emulate if not better her performance in 2018 when she won bronze in the 5k, but first up for the Dubliner will be the 500m.

“I’ve only raced the 500m once this year at the European Championships and I was in the B Final there and I placed sixth in that,” recalled Egan.

“That was my only 500m race this year because I concentrated on the 200m at the qualifiers and the World Cups as well as the 5k.

“So, it would be great if I could get through the stages, from the heats to the semis and hopefully on to the final. I’d be delighted if I could make a B Final in the K1 500m.

“The heats and semis for the 500m will be on Friday, September 17 and hopefully I’ll have a 500m final of some sort on Sunday morning.

“And then Sunday afternoon there’ll be the 5000m.

“In the 2018 World Championships, I won a bronze medal in the 5k and that was a first medal for Ireland, male or female, so it was a historic one.

“The 5k can be so unpredictable, so I’m hoping for a good clean race and that I’m feeling fit and strong on the day and everything will come together. Hopefully I’ll cross that finish line happy, knowing that I gave it my all.

“I’m the only one [from Ireland], male or female, who has medalled at a Senior Canoe Sprint World Cup, Senior Canoe Sprint European Championship and Senior Canoe Sprint World Championship and hopefully this will go well too,” she added.

Pleased with her preparation for this latest challenge, Egan told The Echo: “I had a really busy period in April, May and June with competitions and then I’ve had a good training block between the Europeans in June and now, going into the Worlds.

“I’ve done a lot of domestic races as part of my training here in Ireland and I feel like things are coming together now, so next week it all comes down to those couple of days and hopefully all my hard work will show and I’ll perform to the best of my ability,” she said.

While fully focused on the World Sprint Championships in Copenhagen, Egan will face a quick turnaround after that event with the ICF Senior Canoe Marathon World Championships taking place in Pitesti, Romania later in the month when her brother Peter will also be in action.

“I’m going to stay in Denmark just for a few days and fly to Romania afterwards.

“The Masters will start on Monday, September 27 so Pete will be racing in the Masters K1. He won the gold in that back in 2019 so fingers-crossed he can go well again this year.

“He’ll also be racing in the Senior Men’s K1 Long Distance the following Saturday.

“On the 30th of September I’ll have a heat and hopefully a final in the short distance which is a 3.6km race with two portages.

“Then on the Saturday I’ll have the Long-Distance Marathon, the 26.2km race with six portages. I won bronze in that in 2017,” she said.