Entries for Liffey Descent reach 1,000

CANOEING:ENTRIES FOR the 50th Liffey Descent this Saturday have been closed for safety reasons. They had reached 1,000 competitors by Tuesday. The race has had an uninterrupted annual staging since 1960, when it ran from Butt Bridge to O'Connell Bridge in the city centre.

The event was switched in the 1970s to its current course, a 28-kilometre stretch from The K Club in Straffan to Islandbridge. The eight weirs – the first very close to the start – can make it a tricky and thrilling course.

South Africans Greg and Ryan Louw set the record for the fastest time for the race when they won last year in a K2 racing kayak in one hour 48 minutes and 59 seconds.

They return to defend their title, but their compatriots, Richard and Alan Van Zyl, from the University of Pretoria, have vowed to best them.

The Irish contenders include multiple former winner Malcolm Banks, who teamed up with Dermot Hudson to win the race in 2007 – setting the record which was broken last year.

This year Banks will partner Barry Watkins in a youth-and-experience combination.

Veteran Irish canoeist Gary Mawer, twice an Olympian, won the K1 racing kayak title last year and will also defend his title.

The 50th staging of the event will be marked by a filming of the race, with a helicopter being used to catch the images.

Racing begins at 12.30pm.

The most extraordinary entry is surely that of Iain Maclean, who will travel from Greece to compete in the Masters Racing Kayak category.

It will be his 44th time to take part. An EU employee, he has travelled from Kosovo and Bulgaria for the event.

Ireland’s top canoeist, Eoin Rheinisch, teamed up with Watkins last year in K2. His mind this weekend will be on the World Championships at La Seu d’Urgell in Spain, which begin on Tuesday.

The Kildare man finished fourth at the Olympic Games in Beijing in the K1 Slalom and has targeted this event, at his favourite course, as his time to peak this season.