Lack of water delays Descent

CANOEING: THESE ARE busy times in canoeing, with an Ireland canoe slalom team competing at the final World Cup in Prague today, and the canoe sprint team preparing for next week's World Championships.

And to top it off, the Liffey Descent has been pushed back to October 8th from its set date of September 10th – for lack of water.

Water levels at the Blessington Lakes have been at an historic low, and the ESB did not want to run off a big volume for the race.

The event attracts around 1,000 competitors each year, and according to race director Karl Dunne, the race committee decided not to run a “dry race” because it could have turned the event into an ordeal for most of the participants.

“In 1986 there was a “dry” Liffey and it was a disaster. The top racers will get down the river no matter what, but 80 per cent of our competitors are out for a fun day and it is the thrills and spills of the rough water that they come for,” said Dunne.

The final World Cup of the canoe slalom season has drawn a team of five from Ireland, but the course in Prague is not to the liking of top paddler Eoin Rheinisch.

The man who finished fourth in the K1 event in Beijing is firmly focused on this year’s Olympic qualification event, the World Championships in Bratislava in Slovakia in four weeks’ time.

“It’s a very different style of racing here in Prague. If you look at the course here and compare it to Bratislava, it’s almost like a small ditch here – without making it sound too bad! It’s very flat water, very small water here. It really is a different style of paddling.”

Rheinisch, who goes into action in heats today, says he will be happy if he improves on the 22nd place he filled at the last World Cup in Leipzig.

Since then he failed to make it through the elimination round of the Olympic test event in London, but took the chance to spend more time training in Bratislava. He says he has recovered fully from shoulder surgery.

Ireland will have two other competitors in the men’s K1, Ciaran Heurteau, who finished 29th in Leipzig, and Patrick Hynes. Aisling Conlon and Hannah Craig will compete in the women’s K1.

Meanwhile, the Ireland team for the Canoe Sprint World Championships, which is an Olympic qualifier, has been chosen.

Four Irish athletes will compete: Jenny Egan and Neil Fleming in K1 (racing kayak) events and Seán Marchetti and Val Pierce in the men’s K2.