She chased with every furious paddle stroke and ultimately chased in vain, Jenny Egan-Simmons missing out on the decisive breakaway early on which decided the European Championship medals in the women’s kayak singles 5,000m final at the Olympic Rowing regatta venue.
Five paddlers got into the breakaway, including the World champion from Hungary Emese Kohalmi, who then won out in the sprint finish to take the gold medal in 22 minutes, 44.862 seconds.
Egan-Simmons did win the sprint for sixth, 37.971 seconds behind, after chasing down hard midway through the lapped-race along with the Rebecka Georgsdotter from Sweden, who finished seventh.
At one stage with just under four laps to go Egan-Simmons and Georgsdotter reduced the gap to around 10 metres, only once the five leaders got a sense of that they pressed on further.
It made for a frustrating race for the 35 year-old Dubliner, so near at one point and yet so far, having gone into the final as one of the top-ranked women after winning the bronze medal at the World Championships in Halifax, Canada just a fortnight ago.
Back in Munich city centre, Alice Sharpe rounded off a solid display by the Irish cycling team, finishing 29th in the women’s road race.
Lorena Wiebes from the Netherlands narrowly sprinted the World Champion Elisa Balsamo from Italy, her team mate Rachele Barbieri a close third.
Sharpe rode well throughout the 129.8-kilometre route, and did well to stick the pace of the bunch, finishing just 10 seconds down on the winner.
“It was kind of as expected, I thought it would come down to a sprint,” she said. “There was a lot of pushing and shoving in the peloton and fighting for a position pretty much all day. But it came down to a sprint in the end which I was expecting.
Mia Griffin was unable to race due to the injury she sustained in the Madison on the final day of the European Track Championships earlier in the week.
Gymnast Rhys McClenaghan was also first reserve for the men’s pommel horse final, having finished ninth in qualifying earlier in the week; there were no withdrawals however so his championships were done, the victory there going to the 38 year-old Harytyun Meridinyan from Armenia.
