Ireland's Liam Jegou came agonisingly close to winning a medal in this afternoon's C1 Canoe Slalom final at the Olympics, only for a last gasp penalty to cost him a podium finish in Paris.
Jegou came into these games in mixed form, something that looked to continue during the heats of this competition. He stumbled over the line into the semi-finals, finishing as one of the lowest ranked qualifiers.
However, he sparked into life from that point onwards.
He would record the sixth best time in the semi-finals, before going on to produce a brilliant run in the final. He was almost flawless throughout, only to make contact with the final gate on his run to earn a two second penalty.
Jegou was still in the medal positions at this point, although with more athletes to come, he would eventually be knocked down into seventh place.
🛶 | CANOE SLALOM
7th for Liam Jegou in the final of the Men’s Canoe Single 💪
Final run ➡️ 98.52#TeamIreland | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Y4ohiMy9tD— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) July 29, 2024
Devastatingly, he would have finished in second and earned the silver medal were it not for that late penalty.
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Liam Jegou Had Amazing Response To Error Costing Him Olympic Silver
While there is sure to be some disappointment over the manner that he missed out on an Olympic medal, Liam Jegou was incredibly upbeat after his Olympic involvement came to an end.
This was his best performance in some time, and speaking to RTÉ, he put some perspective on his overall display.
Paris 2024: Ireland's Liam Jegou finishes seventh in the final of the C1 canoe slalom final and insists he has no regrets, targetting a return to the Olympics in four years time.#RTESport #Paris2024
📱Updates https://t.co/NhnQoPxaeE
📺 Watch https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7 pic.twitter.com/9fIfAxOiRw— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 29, 2024
I had a blast today. We spoke two days and I was ready to retire, maybe not that far off.
Today was brilliant. I put down a great semi-final to qualify for my first final in a while. That final was superb, it's what I've been looking for for years. I got it at the right moment.
I could stand here and talk about the what ifs and things like that, but the fact is two days I almost got eliminated in heats and today I almost medalled at the Olympics. That's what I've been working towards for the last 15 years...
Look, I've messed up a lot of runs towards the end because I thought I would just finish up safely and finish off the run. Today I thought I wanted to win the Olympics, that was it.
To win the Olympics you've got to go from (gates) 1 to 23. I pushed hard. I got a little bit too close and that's it.
An Olympic medal would have been a remarkable achievement for the Irishman, who finish 15th in this event at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
While he will be disappointed to miss out on the silver medal, the manner in which he performed on the biggest stage will certainly come as plenty of comfort to him.
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