Egan’s bid for medal falls agonisingly short

JENNIFER EGAN was just a whisker away from winning a canoeing medal yesterday.

The 28-year- old Kildare canoeist was denied a medal by the smallest of margins, finishing just five-tenths of a second off third place in the 5,000m Kayak event.

“It’s heartbreaking” admitted Egan, who won bronze at the European Championships in the Czech Republic last month. “I know it’s a good result, but it’s the medal I wanted.”

Maryna Litvinchuk of Belarus was a convincing winner of the race, having made a move to find clear water halfway into the first of three laps. A chase group that included Egan tried hard to catch the Belarus canoeist but they quickly found that they were battling for silver .

Egan was squeezed out of it attempting a move just on the bell and again on the home straight. She eventually finished fourth in 23: 06.306.

There was more disappointment for Egan in the women’s 500m ‘B’ finals in which she finished sixth in 2:11.396, well behind German Verena Hantl, who took gold in 2: 07.071.

Peter Egan finished 21st in the men’s 5,000m kayak some three minutes behind German winner Max Hoff.

Andrzej Jezierski had to settle for fourth place in the 200m canoe (C1) B final. He posted 42.244 seconds – a shade over two seconds behind the winner, Alfan Benavides Lopez.

Elsewhere, Longford shooter Derek Burnett was in 12th position after the first day of qualification for the men’s trap. Burnett shot a maximum 25 mark in rounds one and two, landing a 23 score in the final round.

Archer Darren Wallace finished 52nd in yesterday’s ranking round and will now face Italian David Pasqualucci in the first round on Saturday.

Sinead Cuthbert Cunningham took 57th place in the women’s equivalent.