Tipperary's Beibhinn Butler makes history at Canoe Freestyle world event

Three Tipperary competitors were on the Irish team that participated in the ICF Canoe Freestyle world championships in Nottingham last weekend.
They were the Clonmel trio of Aoife Hanrahan, Rory Kearney and Beibhinn Butler, with 17-year-old Beibhinn producing the standout performances when she finished in fourth place in the senior women’s canoe event and fifth in the junior women’s kayak race.
In doing so she became the first Irish athlete to reach both the canoeing and kayaking finals in a world series. As a junior female her performances throughout the weekend were regarded as exceptional, as she rubbed shoulders at a very high level with more experienced competitors. The senior canoe event is particularly challenging, both mentally and physically, with competitors required to kneel in the canoe and use just a single blade.
Rory Kearney, meanwhile, finished eighth in the world in the junior men’s event, which was a creditable performance at his first world event.
Beibhinn will sit her Leaving Cert at the Presentation School in Clonmel next year and her performances were a source of great pride for her parents, Carmel and Michael Butler.
After she came through the qualifiers and the semi-finals to reach the finals of both categories, her father Michael said that her top five finishes were a fitting reward for her dedication, which is “second to none, as is that of all of the Irish freestylers.” To prepare for the championships, she spent several weeks training in Nottingham.
“Beibhinn spent a total of six weeks in Nottingham since the start of the year,” says Michael.
This included two weekends, a week-long camp at Easter and the entire month of June.
All of the 23-strong Irish team - the most that had ever represented the country at a canoeing/kayaking event abroad - that competed in Nottingham last weekend had put in two to three years of hard training, which included trips back and forth to Nottingham and long winter evenings spent on the water in Tuam.

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Beibhinn has been paddling on the river since she was a child and has competed at freestyle for the past four years.
A member of the Clonmel-based South East Freestyle Club, which has paddlers from all over the country, she is coached by current European champion David McClure, from Kilkenny, who also has a fourth place finish in the senior men’s category at the world championships to his credit.
“All of the younger paddlers in south Tipperary look up to Aoife Hanrahan, she has been their inspiration,” says Michael Butler.
Aoife made history in Paris last October when winning Ireland’s first-ever women’s medal at the European Freestyle Kayak Championships, creating for herself the huge honour of being the first Irish woman to stand on a podium at an International Canoe Federation event.
She won bronze in the senior women’s category and became only the fourth-ever Irish athlete to bring home a medal from an international freestyle event.
Last weekend’s championships took place on a purpose-built, 700 metres-long white water canoe slalom course. This was constructed on the River Trent at the National Water Sports Centre in Holme Pierrepoint Country Park in Nottingham.
Athletes travelled from around the world to take part, including from the United States, Japan, Spain, Finland, Canada, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Germany, Poland, Austria and Ireland, with one competitor representing Ukraine.