Puspure to get crucial top-level feel

JUST TWO weeks and two days before the Olympic Qualifier in Lucerne, Ireland’s two hopeful crews will get a good idea of where they stand when they go into action today at the World Cup regatta at Belgrade.

Single sculler Sanita Puspure can get a feel of both the very top level, and the contenders for the three remaining Olympic spots from the entry for Belgrade.

World champion Mirka Knapkova is joined by three other scullers who made the crucial top nine at the World Championships last year – and by contenders like Kaisa Pajusalu (12th last year) and Anita De Deckers (13th) who hope, like Puspure, to scramble aboard the plane to London as part of the final three.

Lisa Dilleen, who was also entered for this weekend, has been withdrawn because she has not, as Ireland team manager Martin McElroy explained yesterday, recovered fully from illness.

The Ireland lightweight men’s double of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny come into the regatta having taken bronze on both days of the international regatta in Piediluco two weeks ago, but the field here is much stronger – and much deeper.

Of the top 11 at last year’s World Championships (the cut-off for the Olympics) six are entered, led by world champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Britain.

Further down the rankings many countries which came close last time, like Hungary (13th), Cuba (15th) and Turkey (20th), have rejigged the personnel in their boats.

With a big entry set for the Qualifier, and just two places available, Ireland’s first task will be to make it through heats, and this weekend will give them a chance to prove they can do that.

Ireland’s two other competing crews are in the lightweight single.

Claire Lambe, who hopes to make a mark at the World Under-23 Championships, and Michael Maher are entered. Coleraine man Peter Chambers has joined his brother Richard in the Britain lightweight four.

Ireland are listed in the adaptive events in the form of Karol Doherty, but he was not set to compete. However, Ireland’s adaptive four gave themselves a timely boost on the path to the Paralympic Games in London with a bronze medal at the Gavirate regatta at Varese in Italy at the weekend – and set a Irish record of three minutes 28.3 seconds.

“It’s the first rung on the ladder,” said team manager John Armstrong. “There’s a few more rungs we can climb before we get to London.”

Back in Ireland, Skibbereen stand proudly on top of the eFlow Go Row League table after the second round at Queen’s Regatta.

The event was notable for a fine win for Monika Dukarska in the women’s single, where she outpaced Holly Nixon.