Third time unlucky, or simply not to be, Jenny Egan has once again missed out on Olympic qualification, finishing eighth in her European Quota Canoe Sprint final in Szeged, Hungary, the last chance to secure a place in Tokyo.
Egan qualified for the KI 200m metres final knowing only the top two were guaranteed the remaining Tokyo quota places. Despite starting well, Egan had to settle for eighth place in a highly competitive race, clocking 45.63 seconds behind Britain’s Deborah Kerr, the 23-year-old from Scotland taking the win and the Tokyo qualifying spot in 42.23 seconds, as the final European line-up for this summer’s Olympics now comes together.
For Egan, at age 34 one of the most experienced in the nine-woman final, it completes the long and ultimately unfruitful quest for Olympic qualification. In 2012 she missed out on London by a single spot at a qualifying event, disappointing for the then 25-year-old. Four years later Egan again finished one place shy of a qualifying spot for Rio at a pre-Olympic event, perhaps the more crushing blow.
In a sport known for difficult Olympic qualification, the Kildare canoeist already became the first ever medallist for Ireland at the 2018 World Championships in sprint canoeing, winning bronze in the K1 5000m in Portugal, unfortunately not an Olympic event. Egan still has the World Cup 200m to aim for this weekend.
It means Ireland’s only qualification will be in the men’s canoe C1 slalom, Liam Jegou securing his place last year.
Tokyo qualification still beckons for three Irish crews that have made the trip to Lucerne, Switzerland this weekend for the final Olympic qualifying regatta, and with that too the last possible chance to qualify for Tokyo.
With just two Olympic spots available in every boat class (except for the lightweight women’s double sculls, with three spots) the racing will be fierce, record numbers are registered for this final chance.
The three competing boats looking to land Tokyo berths are the Men’s Single (M1x), the Lightweight Women’s Double (LW2x) and the Women’s Four (W4-). The four Irish boats already qualified for Tokyo are the Women’s Single (W1x), the Women’s Pair (W2-), the Men’s Lightweight Double (LM2X), and the Men’s Double (M2X).
Certainly in-form to qualify are the young women’s four line-up of Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Emily Hegarty. They finished with a silver medal at the 2021 European Rowing Championships in Italy last month, and have had even more time to train - making them favourites to qualify.
But the Irish will have to contend with a fast Italian line-up, as well as top crews from Germany and Ukraine, and outsiders China. Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni, certainly believes they can make it.
Daire Lynch will be competing in the Men’s Single, while Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will be racing in the Lightweight Women’s Double in Lucerne. There are 16 crews entered in that category, with three qualifying spots available for the Olympics. They finished 5th in the A Final at the 2021 European Rowing Championships.
Racing will start on Saturday morning with the heats kicking off around 10am. The quarter-and semi-finals will be on Sunday and the finals on Monday morning.
Irish Crews, Tokyo qualifying regatta, Lucerne
M1x (Top Two Finish to Qualify): Daire Lynch (Clonmel)
W4- Top (Two Finish to Qualify): Fiona Murtagh (NUIG); Eimear Lambe (OCBC); Aifric Keogh (UCC); Emily Hegarty (UCC)
LW2x Top (Three Finish to Qualify) Margaret Cremen (UCC); Aoife Casey (UCC)
