Rheinisch hits turbulent waters
Four years ago, the Kildare man watched as a bronze medal slipped agonisingly from his grasp by just over three seconds in Beijing. Yesterday there was no such wait. His quest for glory was over before he finished his semi-final run following an incredible incident when his kayak struck the bottom of the course and killed his momentum alongside Gate 19.
It was what former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey may have termed a GUBU moment. So how did Rheinisch explain the grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented scene where his Olympic dream was extinguished at the Lee Valley White Water Centre?
“I just feel in shock now. I’m devastated. I still can’t believe that it came down to something like that. I just set out there to do a really measured, controlled run.
“I wasn’t going to take any risks out there for the semi-final. I got down to that last move and when I went to turn the back of the boat in, the very back of the boat hit the bottom of the course.
“It hit either an obstacle or the actual bottom surface of the course. And as you can imagine you’re turning one way and it hits the bottom so it just sends you straight on. It just stops you doing the turn and going where you need to go. I just went straight on and got swept away.”
The error caused him to miss Gate 19, a cardinal sin in the sport. The punishment of a 50-second penalty effectively ended his Olympics as only the top 10 in the 15-man field progressed to the evening’s final, which was won by Italy’s Daniele Molmenti on the day he celebrated his 28th birthday.
Rheinisch couldn’t recall the last time he had missed a gate in competition and admitted the bad luck which had befallen him was extremely rare, given his placement in the water at that stage in the race.
“It’s an unusual one there because I was so far from the bank, in one of those big pools, and I never even thought it could be a possibility, walking the course,” he said. “It’s happened to me before, closer to a bank or in natural rivers or shallow courses but it is just very unusual. I kept fighting, fighting, but just that part of the course was really swift and there’s a wave that you have to catch to cross over to the upstream [gate] and I just didn’t quite get in that wave.
“And once you’re off the back of it, the next thing I know I had gone through the next downstream and that’s a 50 [second penalty] straightaway. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had gotten back to the red [gate] at that stage.”
Hopes were high in the Irish camp that Rheinisch would be in contention for a medal, given his Beijing experience and the measured way in which he came through the heats on Sunday.
Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey and the team’s chef de mission, Sonia O’Sullivan were amongst the officials in the Lee Valley venue, almost an hour from the city centre. Despite his devastation at finishing 14th overall, Rheinisch faced the media and answered candidly when asked to compare the anguish of China in 2008 to yesterday’s body blow.
“This is much worse. Four years ago I came from scraping in at 10th [in the semi-final] to make the final. Obviously coming fourth, it’s tough, but at the same time there was a sense of achievement coming from 10th to fourth.
“Yesterday a time four and a half seconds [off the leader] should have been comfortable to get in to the final and I think I would have had it without touching the bottom of the course.”
When questioned about his future, it was obvious the Leixlip man was still trying to process the happenings of the day. “I’ve no idea. I don’t know. It’s a cruel sport.”
And for the second time in his life, Eoin Rheinisch left the Olympic Games with his heart broken but his head held high.
