CANOEING LIFFEY DESCENT:LOCAL RIVALRY is local rivalry, even if the parties go head-to-head thousands of kilometres from home. Ryan and Greg Louw won the 50th Liffey Descent on Saturday in one hour 46 minutes and 53 seconds.
It was their second consecutive victory and they bettered the record time they set last year – but sweetest of all was they beat compatriots Gavin White and Graeme Solomon into second.
White and Solomon edged out the Louw brothers by .81 of a second for third place in the South African flatwater marathon championships earlier this year. Ryan Louw said that this time they had a plan to deal with their rivals’ strengths as sprinters.
“We knew we had to get ahead at the start and we did that.” Solomon had earlier attested to the success of the plan. “We didn’t make any mistakes but we were under pressure from the start when they opened up a gap.”
Conditions were excellent, with a tailwind and a good flow on the river. Liz Shouldice set a record in winning her third K1 racing kayak title in-a-row, and Gary Mawer won the men’s equivalent – his 12th title in the Liffey Descent.
The 39-year-old may be a relatively old hand by now, but he is a long way behind Iain Maclean, who set his own record by competing in his 43rd Liffey Descent. The 58-year-old had come all the way from Corfu for the event. Why?
“I fell in love with it long ago,” he said.
Maclean and some of the other veterans from the 1960s were profoundly sad at the recent passing of Ernie Lawrence, who helped put the event on the map. Lawrence had hoped to compete on Saturday, but he died 10 days before, on August 26th. A capsule of his ashes was carried down the river by friends.
Some of the rising stars of the sport in Ireland were also on show.
Lorcan Feely won the junior wildwater class on Saturday. He has another year left as a junior, and will represent Ireland at the marathon world championships in Portugal the weekend after next.
Liam Banks, who won the junior K1 on Saturday, is also off to Portugal. Liam’s father Malcolm teamed up with his godson, Barry Watkins, to take third in the K2 class. All in all, a good day for the Banks.
