IRELAND’S ROWERS WILL be coming home from Belgrade with a silver and a bronze after a successful World Cup regatta.
Rio Olympian Sanita Puspure delivered a massive final push to snatch silver in the women’s single sculls final by just 0.21 seconds.
Earlier, Gary and Paul O’Donovan were edged out into the bronze-medal position as they finished third in the lightweight men’s double sculls.
After taking control in the early stages, Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin won gold in the women’s single sculls medal.
But the second half of the race saw Puspure locked in a battle of wills with Magdalena Lobnig for the silver before pipping her Austrian rival in a photo finish, finishing in 7:25.30.
“I’m very happy with the result,” Puspure told World Rowing.
“All the women are great out there and could have all got a medal. My legs were a little tired but I’m really looking forward to Lucerne [World Cup in July].”
While the fine margins went in Puspure’s favour, they weren’t quite so kind to the O’Donovans who were beaten into third place by a razor-thin 0.01 seconds.
Poland’s Jerzy Kowalski and Milosz Jankowski took gold in 6:13.04 ahead of the Belgian crew of Tim Brys and Niels van Zandweghe on 6:14.09, with the O’Donovans timed at 6:14.10.
“We planned to go off really hard and we made a big push at 1000m to keep up with everyone,” Gary O’Donovan told World Rowing.
“At 100m to go, I shouted at Paul to go for it but the others pulled away.”
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