Puspure Takes Third in Olympic Heat and Qualifies for Quarter-Final

28th July 2012

# ROWING: Sanita Puspure qualified for the quarter-finals of the women’s single scull at the Olympic Games today. The 30-year-old needed to finish in the top four to qualify and she finished in a comfortable third place, behind impressive winner Emma Twigg of New Zealand and Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania.

Coleraine men Richard and Peter Chambers had an excellent start to their Olympic campaign in the British lightweight four. They were led by Australia until the final 500 metres, but a big push by Britain made all the difference. They passed the Australians and moved away to win well.

Alan Campbell also won his heat of the single scull. Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand were also impressive winners.

Olympic Games, London

Women’s Single Scull – Heats (First Four Directly through to Quarter-Finals; rest to repechages).

Qualifiers – Heat One: 1 New Zealand (E Twigg) 7:40.24, 2 Lithuania (D Vistartaite) 7:43.07, 3 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:49.35, 4 Brazil (K da Costa) 8:07.75. Heat Two: 1 Australia (K Crow) 7:41.18, 2 Azerbaijan (N Mustafayeva) 7:46.01, 3 Zimbabwe (M Thornycroft) 7:47.10, 4 Cuba (Y Cobas) 7:48.58. Heat Three: 1 Czech Republic (M Knapkova) 7:24.17, 2 Denmark (FU Erichsen) 7:29.37, 3 Germany (ML Draeger) 7:44.23, 4 Thailand (PN Rodenburg) 7:52.62. Heat Four: 1 China (X Zhang) 7:21.49, 2 Sweden (F Svensson) 7:32.61, 3 Paraguay (G Mosqueira Benitez) 7:52.07, 4 Japan (H Sakakibara) 7:52.98. Heat Five: 1 Belarus (E Karsten) 7:30.31, 2 Russia (J Levina) 7:32.06, 3 United States (G Stone) 7:33.68, 4 Mexico (D Oakley Gonzalez) 8:00.17.

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About The Author

Liam Gorman

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Liam Gorman is a writer and reporter. He is the co-author of Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean, published in the United States and Canada as Crossing the Swell. He is the rowing correspondent of the Irish Times.

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