Recovering from the setbacks due to illness which affected her 2013 season, Sanita Puspure continues from strength to strength, winning the B Final in Lucerne with what the Irish Times referred to as a commanding performance.  Level at half way with Erichsen (the Danish Sculler, who won a silver medal at the London Olympics), Sanita pushed through for the last 500m to win by over a length ahead of Russian Levina with Denmark’s Erichsen coming in third.

A great performance by the OC sculler, according to Ireland high-performance director Morten Espersen “Sanita is not far from where the medals will be”. As ever, we wish her the very best.  You can keep up to date with Sanita’s progress by following her on Twitter. In a recent post, Sanita tweeted a picture of Mother’s race at her children’s’ sports day – wouldn’t fancy anyone else’s chances!

The Liffey on Neptune Regatta Day

Old Collegians Boat Club is happy to offer those travelling to Ireland for the Dublin Web Summit the opportunity to get out for an early morning spin in a eight on the river Liffey.

This offer is open to all attendees of the Dublin Web Summit, the only stipulation is that you must have at least one year’s experience of rowing.

Who knows, we may even be able to convince the Web Summit’s Marketing & Events Consultant Niall O’Toole to come out for a spin. Niall is a former Sculling World Champion and Olympic finalist, and knows this stretch of river like to back of his hand.

Please note – this opportunity is available for a limited number, on a first come first served basis. Those interested should email the club captain James Kelly at captain@oldcollegians.ie

The Liffey at Islandbridge

C Final – 4th August
Sanita comfortably won the C final in the Women’s Single Sculls, almost eight seconds ahead of second placed Micheen Thornycroft. This result places Sanita 13th overall in the event. This was a a great performance to end her London Olympics – we are all very proud of her, and wish her and her family the very best for the rest of the summer. We look forward to seeing Sanita build on this performance over the coming months and years as she competes again on international waters!

Semi-final C/D – 2nd August
Sanita won her C/D semi final very comfortably this morning, coming in a clear 10 seconds ahead of the next sculler, Da Costa of Brazil. This means that she will race in the C final, in which scullers compete for the 13th-18th positions in the competition.

Looking at the times of the A/B semi finals also rowed this morning, it’s clear that on times alone, she ranks somewhere in the top 10. However as noted below, her Quarter Final was a particularly strong field, and as a result she didn’t make her way into the B final, which would have been for places 7th-12th. We wish her the very best for the C Final.

Quarter final – 31st July
Sanita put in a fine performance, narrowly missing out on progressing to the Olympic Semis. 
The first 3 home in the Quarter would go through with the Swedish and Czech scullers widely fancied to top the race having been World Champions in 2010 and 2011.

Sanita had been beaten by the American Sculler in the field earlier in the season and it was reckoned that the final qualification place would be between them, with Sanita needing to reverse the previous result.

Sanita had a fast start and was leading for quite a while, with the American back in 5th. 
The Czech sculler came through to win the race as expected but it was the US athlete who put in the best performance on the day, coming through to take 2nd at the expense of the Swedish sculler with Sanita in 4th by about 4 seconds, just missing out.

She gave it absolutely everything and it is telling that her time would have placed her 3rd in all 3 of the other Quarter Finals thereby quailfying her for the Semifinals 
(In fact she was 8 and 16 seconds faster than the 3rd place athletes in two of the other Quarters).

When Sanita looks back at the calibre of those drawn in her race and the times posted compared to the other races I am sure she will realise how well she acquitted herself. 
She did herself and us proud and hopefully she will have a real go at the C Final in which she would appear to be the stand-out athlete.

1st Round Heat – 28th July
Sanita placed third in her heat, comfortably qualifying for the quarter finals, which will take place on Tuesday 31st.

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Sanita’s heat is at 1330 hrs GMT on Saturday 28th of July. Results will be posted here in due course.

There was a great response to the appeal to support Sanita in her Olympic bid. As well as donations received from members of Old Collegians, we received donations from current and previous oarsmen and oarswomen from clubs across the country. Sanita is very grateful for everyone’s assistance, and has asked that this message from her be shared.

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Hi all,

I wanted to say you all a few words before leaving for London in two days’ time. Firstly I wanted to thank every one of you that have been supporting me since I joined the club, although it was only four years ago so many things have happened and changed. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I could qualify for London Olympics in just over three and a half years from having our youngest child and that I would be preparing now for the biggest event in any athletes sporting life. I always had that feeling inside me that I was capable of achieving something more and I did not want to spend the rest of my life thinking, what if?

I was taking one step at the time and the dream kept coming closer and closer and it didn’t look so unrealistic any more. Of course there were times when it was not easy and we had to face some difficulties, but I kept saying – “If you give up on your dreams, what’s the point in doing anything in your life!”. And I guess that’s what kept me going, the Dream.

A lot of what I did and achieved would not be possible without the support from people around me and especially from Old Collegians. I want to thank Phil O’Keeffe for coaching and guiding me back in to competitive rowing, Paul Romeril for helping out with the equipment, Murrough, James, Barry for being there and supporting. There is one man that deserves a very big thanks from me and it’s John O’Keeffe, ever since I joined Old Collegians he is always been there, helping me along the way. I know there are a lot more people that I have not even met but they have been supporting me on this incredible journey and I hope to meet you all one day and thank you.

I will do the best I can in London, I will fight for every place and hopefully make you proud.

Kind Regards,
Sanita