Team Ireland had Ballyvaughan canoer Liam Jegou in action this morning at the Kasai Slalom Centre
Crushing result for Liam Jegou in the canoeing slalom semi-final – was by far the fastest of the first 5 men through 2/3 of the run before missing a gate. Was on for a huge result before that. His Olympics is over.#Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/QJHhPFbPpj
— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) July 26, 2021
Jegou came into today’s C-1 Canoe Slalom in high spirits, full of confidence from his good run in the qualifying round that saw him in the top 15 places.
He was to be the fifth person down the artificial rapids stream after Swiss athlete Thomas Koechlin.
Jegou would have to make it through 25 gates in total without making missing one and with as few errors as possible.
He started his one and only attempt very fast and controlled, swerving through each gate. He made good time on the double reverse gates leaving him in a good place on the second half of the race.
After 22 gates he looked on course for a great time until a poor mistake mistake ruined his run. He misjudged the rapid waves as his oar struck the side of the gate and he failed to get his head cleanly between the gates.
This would result in a 50 second penalty and he knew his tournament was over. The dejected Jegou missed another gate in disappointment as he crossed the finish line.
The errors would leave him last in the semi-finals but it was very close to being another great run.
The 25-year-old still has many more great years of canoeing ahead of him. He has already won gold at the 2019 C-1 World Cup event in Pau and finished sixth at this years World Cup.
#Canoe Disappointing exit for Liam Jegou in the #CanoeSlalom Semi-Finals, two mistakes on course left him in 15th place on a score of 208.39. This is not the last we will see of him as he sets his sights on the future, WATCH THIS SPACE! 🇮🇪🇯🇵 #TeamIreland in #Tokyo2020
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) July 26, 2021
For those of you that are more interested in the canoeing, France’s Martin Thomas and Australia’s Daniel Watkins finished top two in the semi finals then.
The final took place less than two hours later in which Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek took home gold in a staggering time of 98.25. The Czech Republic’s Rohan and Germany’s Tasiadis would take silver and bronze respectfully .
The women’s semi-final and final will take place tomorrow morning at 06:00 in the Kasai Slalom Centre.
