Olympic Canoeing:Eoin Rheinisch's Olympic campaign in the K1 slalom ended in bitter disappointment this afternoon after he missed a gate on the testing Lee Valley course. With only the top 10 advancing from the semi-finals, the 50 second penalty spelt the end for Rheinisch.
It was gut-wrenching stuff for the 32-year-old, coming four years after he just missed out on bronze in Beijing. Having carefully plotted his way down the course, Rheinisch was in good shape to make it through to the final but it all went wrong at Gate 19.
Slightly out of position coming out of the previous gate, Rheinisch got trapped in an eddy as he attempted to make it to the upstream gate and the torrent of water then pushed him down the course. The enormity of the mistake was immediately evident, as the crushed Irishman struggled to complete the course.
While Rheinisch finished 14th out of the 15 starters, there was also disappointment for Team GB as Richard Hounslow missed out. Hounslow, 30, recorded a time of 104.30 seconds, which placed him in 12th and outside the top 10 qualifying places.
Hounslow could only wait at the bottom, looking anxiously at the giant screen, as successive paddlers went quicker, leaving him to slip agonisingly down the leader board. His failure to reach the final follows that of David Florence in the single canoe yesterday.
The 29-year-old world number one blew his chance when he finished 11th in the semi-final after a mistake at gate 16 cost him valuable time. While the gates have been set specifically for the Games and changed for the finals, both paddlers have had 18 months to use the course, recording something like 3,000 practice runs each in that time.
They will be looking to make amends for their mistakes in the individual events when they race together in the two-man canoe tomorrow.