Kildare's Jenny Egan missed out on her last chance to make the Tokyo Games after finishing ninth in the K1 200m at the global Olympic qualifiers this morning in Russia. The Salmon Leap Club paddler finished 3.184 seconds behind home winner Natalia Podolskaia whose time of 42.731 secured the final spot at this year's Games. Egan previously missed out on Olympic qualification for both the Rio and London Games by just one place and has had to contend with a tougher qualification process in a pandemic-affected year. However, Ireland will send France-based Liam Jegou to Tokyo to compete in the C1 slalom following an absence of Irish canoeists at Rio 2016. As for Egan, the 34 -year-old will now compete in her preferred discipline, the K1 5,000m – which is not an Olympic category – at the World Cup on Sunday which is being held at the same venue in the Siberian city of Barnaul.

Source: Irish Independent May 21, 2021 11:15 UTC