Flat-water Racing European
Junior & U23 Championships
Ada
Ciganlij Lake
, Belgrade, Serbia
September
2nd, 2007.
Barry
Watkins, of Salmon Leap Canoe Club , took gold in the Junior 500m individual kayak
class (K1) in Belgrade
this morning. This is Ireland’s first ever gold medal at
Championship level in flat-water racing, which is an Olympic discipline since
1936. On Saturday, Barry took bronze in the 1000m K1 class, but was
always expected to perform better in his favored event the 500m. The two medal
haul by Barry puts him firmly on track for the 2012 Games. Interestingly, his
father Howard competed for Ireland
in kayak sprint in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.
In the 500m
final, Barry had been the fastest qualifier with a time of 1.46 seconds. In the
final, despite being over a second down at half-way on his British rival,
Kristian Reeves, he had the fastest split in the second sector to win with
almost a second to spare from Portugese paddler and winner of the 1000m event,
Fernando Pimenta. Barrys time of 1 minute 41 seconds is a new Irish Junior
record.
His time in the
1000m race, was less than half a second behind the winner. He also established,
not just a junior record, but a senior Irish record with a time of 3 minutes 34
seconds.
Notes:
Barry, 18, hails
from Leixlip, Co.Kildare. He trains full-time for both flatwater racing
and marathon canoeing. In 2006, he was
fourth in the Junior World Marathon Championships in K2,
with Brian Keogh. Again in 2007, he had a fourth place but this time it was at
the Junior Sprint Worlds. However, he has the chance of another podium place at
the Marathon World Championships next weekend, in Hungary.
Quotes:
The result shows
our potential for 2012 and pioneers Irish canoeing at the top level in this
event. National coach Gabor Kulcsar has been instrumental in the development of
this young paddler, who trains with his son, said that “this is just the start
of Barrys career and it looks like he will re-write the record books in Irish
canoeing.”
According to
two-time Olympian and director of marathon racing in Ireland, Gary Mawer,
“Barry has the ability to be World Class in both sprint and marathon events and
is a likely medalist next weekend at the Junior World marathon Championships,
in Gyor, Hungary.”
Contact: Tadhg MacIntyre
087-8393630
See Links Below:
http://www.kayakec2007.com/ European
Championships Flatwater Racing U23/Junior
www.gyor2007.com/ World Marathon Championships,
Senior/Junior