CANOEING:AT FIRST glance the white-water course at Shunyi Rowing Park resembles an adventure theme park. A place for some thrill and excitement - exactly what it's being turned into when the Olympics are over, and exactly what Eoin Rheinisch got as he narrowly averted what would have been an intolerable exit from the opening runs of the kayak slalom.
Rheinisch came to Beijing as an outside contender for a medal. But today's semi-final looks like being something of a redemption run, as he's struggling against some of the leaders in his class.
At least he got through, and if yesterday proved anything, it's that the unexpected can happen in the kayak slalom, particularly when pressure comes on.
"Four years ago, in Athens, I missed the semi-final by one place," he told us, still looking as if he'd seen a ghost. "Gone after the first day. And that was absolutely devastating. The reality is, I very, very nearly let the same thing happen again. And I would have had no one to blame but myself."
As it turned out, it was the American Scott Parsons who was left blaming himself.
Third after the first run, Parsons made a catastrophic error on his second run by failing to properly negotiate a gate and incurring a 50-second penalty. Parsons appealed the penalty, and only when this was rejected was Rheinisch assured of his place in the semi-final - as the last of the 15 qualifiers.
So he gets another run today (8.40am Irish time), and if he can move into the top 10, he will then get into the final run two hours later, where medals are decided.
While that looks unlikely, Rheinisch displayed good resolve in the way he attacked his second run yesterday, and despite getting a two-second penalty, for touching the 16th of the 21 gates, he at least did what he needed to do to make the top 15.
"Of course I'm very relieved," he added. "I didn't see the American's run, so I honestly didn't know what would come of that appeal. I went into the first run looking to play it a little safe and obviously played it too safe.
"After that, I just had to give it a lash, and I think I at least did that. Obviously, I was lucky in the end, especially with the American getting penalised the way he did."
Sitting 18th after the first run, on 88.52 seconds, almost seven seconds down on the leader, Peter Kauzer of Slovenia, Rheinisch in fact needed a further stroke of luck to help see him through.
The Chinese kayaker, Fuxue Ding, who was 15th after the first run, also incurred a 50-second penalty, which dropped him to last.
It's practically unheard of for two elite kayakers to make such a fatal mistake on the same run, and it meant Rheinisch had survived by 31-hundredths of a second - his combined time, 176.33, was almost 10 seconds down on Kauzer's.
It would have been horrible had he missed again by one place, especially given all the effort he'd made to get it right in the four years since Athens. The Kildareman has been in Beijing for the past two weeks finalising his preparations, with his psychologist Brendan Hackett also on hand.
"With only six being eliminated, I think Eoin underestimated a little how close it would be, and that a good, solid run would see him through," reckoned Hackett.
"He very nearly hit the fourth gate on the first run, but still didn't panic. In the end . . . it was a good, old-fashioned kick up the backside. He knew two 86-second runs would have got him through.
"He made two mistakes, but just about got away with it. It wasn't about fitness and mental strength. He just made those two technical mistakes, and in this sport they can be very costly. So he left himself in the lap of the gods.
"But then we've been hearing a lot that the Chinese lucky number is eight. He was wearing bib number eight, his first run was 88 seconds, and he was in 18th position. So he definitely rode that luck in the second run."
