Congratulations to Rowing Ireland who qualified two boats for Rio at the World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France.
Paul & Gary O’ Donovan showed great character in an extremely tough race to narrowly edge out Greece in the lightweight men’s double sculls and claim the all-important fifth position as they crossed the line.
Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe had an incredible race in the women’s equivalent, taking the lead from the start and holding onto it all the way to the last 300m, where China & Poland eventually caught up to them and the Irish were very narrowly pushed into a third place finish. An excellent result for the athletes who only needed to finish in the top 5 to go to Rio.
Sanita Puspure in 5th position the B Final of the women’s single sculls in an incredible race and unlucky to miss out on Olympic qualification at the Worlds..
Sanita stormed out of the starting blocks at a blistering pace, gaining a lead of over a length of clear water by the first 500m mark and maintaining that margin for the first three quarters of the race. Only then did the chasing crews begin to erode that distance and put pressure on the Ireland sculler, who bravely fought to the line but was pushed down the rankings to fifth, the smallest of margins separating the crews in an extremely tight finish.
A race to be proud of for Sanita in a high quality field, and she can look ahead to another chance to qualify for Rio in May next year .
This marks the end of the 2015 World Rowing Championships and a fantastic campaign from Team Ireland, well done to all our Irish athletes.
