European Marathon Championships 2001, Gyor, Hungary
Report By Eamon Fleming for the Liffey Champion
Silver for Celbridge Paddler in European Juniors.
It was an emotional return home to Budapest for Ireland's Hungarian born Canoe Coach,
Gabor Kulskar. For Gabor, who now hails from Leixlip, is Ireland's National flat-water
Canoe Coach, and he was returning to his home country where Canoeing is far from being a
minority sport with reports of Canoe races making sporting headlines in all the national
newspapers and TV.
Gabor, who has spent the last two years working with Irelands Canoeists, the return home
for the European Marathon Championships with his young Irish charges was to be an
important test of his last two years work.
In the first race of the Championships, the youngest member of the team, Neil Fleming
delivered the goods in the Junior Mens K1 race. which included a number of portages, where
the paddlers had to leave the river and carry their boats. Given the extreme heat (over
30degrees ), this made the race even more challenging, especially for the Irish paddlers.
In a race, which had representatives from twenty-three European Countries, Neil was never
out of the leading group. When the race reached the last lap the leading group had been
reduced to three with the 17 year old Salesian College student from Celbridge never out of
the leading group. Indeed Gabor's face was described by the Irish party as being 'as white
as snow' as they watched the race develop on the large television screens at the finish.
The leading group was made up of three paddlers, two Hungarians and Neil. With the two
Hungarians working as a team Neil had his work cut out. He led out the sprint to the line
but was unfortunate to catch a small weed on the bow of his boat as he approached the
line, which allowed one of the Hungarians get the better of him by a very small margin. A
Silver medal was a great result for the young Irish paddler and the Irish team. Ireland's
second paddler in the race Mark Geraghty finished in nineteenth position.
There was great cause for Irish optimism in the Mens K1, with the inclusion of Gary Mawer
in the field. Gary had won the last World Cup race in Spain. In the event a poor start
draw and heat in excess of 35 degrees was two much for him. Still, after a poor start he
fought back to fourteenth position. Ireland's other representative in this class, Fergus
Cooper, finished in twenty-second position.
The next major challenge for the Irish Marathon Paddlers is the British Championships that
are being held in Norwich next weekend. A full contingent of Irish paddlers is traveling
to the event and there is an expectation of one of the best set of results for many years
from the team, especially in the boys and girls junior classes. Again both Neil Fleming
and Gary Mawer are traveling to the event so Irish optimism is very high for a successful
weekend at the elite level. With the excellent results achieved by the Irish athletes over
the Summer it looks as if this years Liffey Descent which is held in early September will
be one of the most competitive ever.