Off the back of an extremely successful World Cup campaign earlier this year, the Irish Freestyle Kayak team was back out in force at the European Freestyle Championships in Graz, Austria. Included in the team were the reigning European Champion, David McClure, European bronze medallist Aoife Hanrahan, and World Cup medallists Leah Hough and Eoghan Kelly. There were a few late substitutes to the team with Robbie Geary doubling up from the C1 to take a bonus K1M spot allocated to Ireland, and Giles Kearney flying in as a late replacement for the unfortunately injured Fergus Murphy.
With such a big field present at these Championships the action was non-stop, with each day filled to the brim with paddling, working through the various categories of the event. This extremely strong team gave us cause for celebration from day 1. In the K1 Men, David McClure, Tom Dunphy, Mark Kearney and Barry Loughnane all qualified through the opening round, being joined by Aoife Hanrahan and Eidin Dowling with qualified in the K1 Women. Day 2 brought our Junior and C1 paddlers into the event with similar success, Lead Hough qualified through to the K1 Women Junior semi-final in 1st place, joined by Mea Minchin. Eoghan Kelly continues his great season by qualifying for the semi-final in the C1 Men. Ireland’s sole competitor in the C1 Women, Beibhin Butler, finished 8th in the her preliminary round to safely qualify through.
The final rounds came about with mixed results, Aoife Hanrahan, Leah Hough and Eoghan Kelly all qualifying for their respective finals, with the big upset coming from David McClure missing the K1 Men final, ending his campaign to defend the European title. The disappointment for the team was short lived. In the K1 Women’s Junior final, Leah Hough, in her final run of the event, put in an absolutely dominant performance to become the European Champion. Her score of 890 points in the final was more than 400 points clear of her nearest competitor, capping off a clean sweep in the event of winning the preliminary round, semi-final and final. Irelands other two finalists, Eoghan Kelly (C1M) and Aoife Hanrahan (K1W) both put in similarly string performances, barely missing the medals as they both finished 4th in their respective finals.
As always one of the biggest wins for the Freestyle team was the support from the bank. There was never any shortage of green jerseys in the stand, with the entire team always on hand to cheer on any Irish paddler on the water. It is always a proud moment seeing the Freestyle team’s passion and support of each other, which is surely a contributing factor to the strong performances this team produces. Our final thanks go to team manager, Matty White, team coach, Lowri Davis, and all the parents and volunteers who support these paddlers and Freestyle as a whole.