LIAM JEGOU WILL compete in Monday’s Olympic canoe slalom semi-finals after recovering brilliantly from a sub-par first run on an exhausting day in Vaires-sur-Marne.
Jegou, 26, was the 16th and final competitor to book his spot in the semis after clocking a time of 99.93 seconds on the whitewater with his second run, shaving almost three seconds off his disappointing first effort (102.67).
Jegou did lose six seconds via three penalties, but his 16th-placed finish was enough to book him into Monday’s penultimate stage.
'Probably the hardest day I've had on the water in my life'
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 27, 2024
An exhausted Liam Jegou reacts to qualifying for canoe slalom semi-finals#rtesport #paris2024
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“It was such a tough day,” Jegou told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
“It was probably the hardest day I’ve had on the water in my my life.
“The first run, I was alright at the top but just pushing everything and I gassed out at the bottom. I was really poor technically all-round.
“The second run was a bit better. I pushed a lot hard to get closer with the raw time. What a tough day.”
Later, Madison Corcoran was left disappointed in the women’s kayak (K1).
The 21-year-old daughter of Ireland’s two-time Olympic canoe slalomist Mike Corcoran, American-born Madison missed the seventh gate on her first run, a mistake which cost her 50 seconds.
On her second run, Corcoran picked up four penalty seconds in a second run of 115.93. However, even if she had completed her second run without those penalties, Corcoran would still have missed out on progression to the semis having lost a lot of time at the red gates.
Corcoran finished 24th of 25 competitors, nine seconds outside the 22nd-placed finish she would have required to advance.
