ConGraz to Leah as she steps into the history books
Young Navan athlete reaches new level in kayaking
The 2024 Freestyle Kayaking European Championships which took place in Graz, Austria recently certainly proved to be memorable for Meath's Leah Hough.
The young Navan athlete spent the month of August out in Graz preparing for the competition with her coach Tom Dunphy.
"I had to fly back for the weekend before the competition for my debs and when I arrived back out the team training had started. We walked through the beautiful town of Graz for the opening ceremony on the 27th August where the locals did some traditional dancing and the Europeans Championships were declared officially open," she recalls.
In the preliminaries of the competition the young Navan woman scored 1,000 points putting her 1,200 points ahead of the competitor in second place and also placing her second amongst the junior men and senior women.
Reaching the 1,000 points mark also ensured she scaled new heights.
The magic number of 1,000 points has never been scored before by any junior woman in an ICF event or any woman from Ireland before. It set an ICF record within the sport.
Leah made it through to the semi-finals and finals in first position - although not without a hitch or two. Her first two runs in the final didn’t go to plan but on her final and third run she managed to register 890 points ensuring she was the 2024 junior women’s European champion.
Her score of 890 points in the final was more than 400 points clear of her nearest competitor, capping off a clean sweep in the event. She won the preliminary round, semi-final and final
"After my final run in the competition I couldn’t help but shed a few tears as I was very proud of how I had performed after months of preparation in the cold and on challenging rapids in Ireland.
"I moved off the campsite where I had stayed while training for the competition and stayed with my Mam in an Airbnb for the week of the competition."
Her performance in May at the World Cup events and her performance at the Europeans in Graz has made Leah the most accomplished freestyle kayaking athlete in Irish history with two gold medals in the space of a year.
"I will be a senior woman next year and I am excited to take on the women and show them what I have got," she added.