Congratulations to Ireland’s Sanita Puspure who closed a gap of eight years since Ireland won a medal in an Olympic event at a major rowing Championships when she took bronze in the women’s single sculls at the European Championships in Belgrade at the weekend.
Puspure was in the top three right through the race: she matched the pace of early leaders from Austria and Germany and stayed at the sharp end as they faded back and Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova took over the lead.
Puspure was in silver medal place in the final 50 metres, pushing Knapkova, when Chantal Achterberg of the Netherlands launched a remarkable attack to pip Puspure on the surge by two hundredths of a second. Gold medallist Knapkova was just three tenths of a second ahead of Puspure.
“It’s really, really amazing,” Puspure said of the feeling of having medalled. She “wasn’t surprised” at Achterberg’s stunning finish, she said. The same scenario had unfolded in the heat, where the Dutch woman had pushed her out of automatic qualification. She was deeply disappointed, but bit the bullet, won her repechage and then placed second in her semi-final on Saturday to give herself a shot at a medal.
Puspure’s medal was the first for Ireland in an Olympic class boat at a major Championships since the men’s lightweight four took bronze at the World Championships at Dorney Lake in 2006. It was a day when Ireland rowing had already showed its return to form.
The pair of Lisa Dilleen and Leonora Kennedy finished a close-up fourth in their A Final in their first outing as a pair in a major championships. They had won their repechage on Saturday.
Ireland will send a big team to the World Cup in Aiguebelette in three weeks’ time. Joining the four Belgrade boats will be a women’s lightweight double of Claire Lambe and Denise Walsh; a men’s ligthweight pair of Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan, and single sculler John Keohane.
