Ireland's Sanita Puspure 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, Serbia yesterday.
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.
Steely determination
The fightback mirrored Puspure’s arc in the last three years. She came out of the Olympic Games in 2012, where she finished 13th, with a steely determination to climb the ladder of single scullers. But she had a terrible 2013. She found the change of coaching regime tough and then fell ill and had to pull out of the European Championships. But new coach Don McLachlan and Morten Espersen managed admirably: they even won her funding for the new season.
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 – put together this season by McLachlan – 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.
Britain dominated the final and won impressively, with Romania second. Ireland established themselves in fourth and targeted the Netherlands, who had set the early pace but then faded back to third for the second half. Ireland pushed hard but the Dutch held on.
Double sculls
The double sculls of
Monika Dukarska
and Eimear Moran struggled in both Saturday’s repechage and yesterday’s B Final, where they started well but faded and finished 10th of the 10 crews.
Paul O’Donovan finished second in the C Final of the lightweight single sculls, 14th of the 20 starters overall.
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 - who was in winning form at Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake at the weekend.
