*Liam Jegou.
BALLYVAUGHAN’s Liam Jegou finished seventh in the final of the men’s C1 canoe slalom at the Olympics in Paris.
Liam was within touching distance of a medal at the Olympics but an error at gate fourteen proved costly. Prior to this, he had a storming run at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Centre.
Aged twenty eight and competing in his second Olympics having been in Tokyo in 2021 where he finished fifteenth, Liam was within touching distance of a medal this time round.
He was the seventh athlete to take to the water in the final, with the five fastest semi-finalists to follow. A time of 98.52 meant he was sixth fastest of the dozen that progressed to the final, with world number three Nicolas Gestin posting the quickest time overall.
Jegou gave another assured performance when the final got underway shortly after, but there was agony as his brilliant run was ruined by touching the 23rd and final gate on the course to drop him from first to third. A clean run, without those two second penalties, would have been good enough for silver.
Jegou said his performance in the final was what he had “been working towards for the past fifteen years”. Speaking on Tuesday, he stated, “I had a blast today, we spoke two days ago and I was ready to retire, maybe not that far but today was brilliant. I put down a really great semi-final run to qualify for the first final in a while, and that final was superb”.
He added, “It’s what I’ve been looking for for years, years, years and I got it at the right moment. I can stand here and talk about the ‘what ifs’ and this and that but the fact is, two days ago I almost got eliminated in heats and today I almost medalled at the Olympics and that’s what I’ve been working towards for the past 15 years”.
“It’s such a privilege and an honour to be in the fight for the medals, it’s what we all dream of and today I was almost there”.
Gold went to France’s Gestin, who on the course where he trains, blew the field away with a 91.36 second run, finishing well clear of Great Britain’s Adam Burgess in second.
For Jegou, his attention now turns to Friday when he will compete in the kayak cross, a new canoe slalom event making its debut at Paris 2024. “Kayak cross is a new discipline for this Olympics and it’s really fun to watch. It’s four boats going off a really big scary ramp at the start and instead of poles we have these big gates we touch and go around and it’s a fight to the end between those four boats,” he explained.
