Record seven Irish boats heading for Paris but Puspure misses out
Emily Hegarty, Natalie Long, Imogen Magner and Eimear Lambe after qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games with victory in the women's four at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne. Picture: Rowing Ireland.
For 1700m of Tuesday's women's single sculls final at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, it appeared that Sanita Puspure was cruising to a place in Paris. Then, it all fell apart.
The Cork-based 42-year-old, who was aiming to reach her fourth Olympic Games, led from the off and held a significant lead at the halfway point.
Though eventual winner, Spain's Virginia Diaz Rivas, had narrowed the gap by the three-quarters point, Puspure still held an advantage of more than five seconds over Switzerland's Aurelia-Maxima Janzen, the world U23 champion, with the top two guaranteed a ticket to Paris. At that stage, even the World Rowing live stream commentary team were elated for Puspure, hoping that she was "enjoying herself out there".
However, the Irish rower's chances rapidly unraveled in the final 300m as she was passed by both Rivas and Janzen along with Solvenia's Nina Kostanjsek and the Czech Republic's Alice Prokesova as she eventually finish fifth, nearly 15 seconds behind the winner.
Puspure did appear to hit a buoy in the final 200m but she had already been overtaken by the Spaniard at that point. It may have been a sign of her deteriorating technique rather than the cause of her dropping down the field. The extent of Puspure's lead early in the race was not a surprise. She went into the final as favourite for qualification after winning her heat and semi-final by considerable margins.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, there was elation for the Irish women's four of Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen), Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians), Natalie Long (Lee Valley), and Imogen Magner (Carlow) as they won their final and secured a place in Paris. After finishing second to Denmark in the preliminary race on Sunday, the Irish crew reversed those positions when it really matter. They reeled in the Danish boat in the final 500m to win by 0.79 of a second. Hegarty and Lambe were part of the Irish four which claimed bronze three years ago at the Tokyo Games.
20 minutes prior to Puspure getting in the water, there was also disappointment for Konan Pazzaia as she finished sixth in the men's single sculls final. The 22-year-old Queen's University Belfast man, world U23 gold medallist last year, was aiming to became the first Irish rower to qualify in the category since 1992. Swiss-born Pazzaia went out fast and led at the 500m mark but could not keep pace in a race won by Romania's Mihai Chiruta with the USA's Jacob Plihal claiming the other Paris spot up for grabs.
The qualifier, known as the 'Regatta of Death', was the final chance for crews to secure an Olympic place.
The women's four qualifying means that a record seven boats will represent Ireland in Paris. As they secured the boat's place at the Lucerne regatta, Hegarty, Lambe, Long and Magner will be first choice for the Olympics. That is not the case for the other six boats which had already qualified.
At last year's World Championships in Belgrade, Margaret Cremen (UCC) and Aoife Casey (Skibbereen) qualified the the lightweight women's double; Paul O'Donovan (UCC) and Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen) qualified the lightweight men's double; Philip Doyle (Portora) and Daire Lynch (Clonmel) qualified the men's double; Alison Bergin (Fermoy) and Zoe Hyde (Killorglin) qualified to women's double; Fiona Murtagh (Galway) and Aifric Keogh (DCU) qualified the women's pair; and Nathan Timoney (QUB) and Ross Corrigan (Portora) qualified the men's pair.
Rowing Ireland will confirm at a later date which rowers have been selected to occupy those six boats for Paris.
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