Egan digs deep to capture bronze in European Masters
By Stephen Leonard
PETER Egan captured a bronze medal at the European Masters Canoe-ing Championship follow- ing a dogged performance over 19km in strength-sapping heat at the French town of Decize on Monday.
Competing in the 40-44 age division, the Lucan man came home in a time of 1.28 behind Spanish pair Jesus Rodriguez and Pablo Zamora and ahead of Pier Siersma from the Netherlands in fourth.
Lucan canoeist Peter Egan with the European Masters bronze medal he won in France.
Delighted with his performance over a course of five long laps and one small one that contained four portages, Egan told The Echo “I had been training hard so it was great to win a medal.
“I was happy with how I performed especially in that heat. It was 36 degrees with no wind.
“The first three laps weren’t so bad, but the last two were tough because I got isolated after the two ahead of me broke away and I had to work hard to stay clear of the competitor in fourth place.
“They [Rodriguez and Zamora] had been trying to shake me off and break clear, but I hung with them for the first three laps.
“After that I had to dig deep to maintain my pace and not let it drop. I knew I had third place. I worked hard on the fourth lap and the fifth was just about survival,” he said.
The brother of Olympic Games hopeful Jenny Egan, Peter will be back out competing in the European Senior Men’s K1 division in Decize on Saturday hoping to build on this impressive performance.
Also competing in the Masters division were Egan’s Salmon Leap clubmates Mark Clinton, Eddie Martin and John Morrissey whose brother Jim finished 12th in the Men’s 50-54 class.
Clinton came home fourth in the Men’s K1 60-64 field while Martin and John Morrissey were 13th and 19th respective in the 50-54 section.
Set to line out in the Junior European Champ-ionships at the same venue this week are Matt McCartney, Alex O’Brien, Nathan Devine and Senan Forrestal while Aisling Smith will contest the Senior Women’s class.
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