Sanita Puspure has revealed that she took some inspiration from brothers Gary and Paul O’Donovan following her women’s single sculls final win at the World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria on Sunday.
The Latvian born Puspure won by a clear stretch in choppy conditions in Plovdiv to add to Ireland’s gold medal tally after the O’Donovan’s claimed gold in the lightweight double sculls on Saturday.
“It was amazing to watch them yesterday,” Puspure told Cork’s 96FM.
“They really inspired me and I got very, very emotional after their race so I really wanted to do well today and I knew I just had to keep the head in the game and not overthink it.
“I found it really challenging actually because I’ve never been so close on paper, because I was a bit of an underdog in previous rounds, I’ve never been so close to winning something.
“I just had to try and calm down and focus on the here and now and just go through that. The waiting was the hardest but as soon as I got in the water I was fine.”
The O’Donovan brothers had a less nervous wait before their race on Saturday and revealed that they had been out sampling the local night-life until 2am in the morning.
“We were out on the town with (the Norwegian team) last night and we said to them, ‘Big day tomorrow. We have to be on form’,” Paul told RTE Sport.
“We headed away early, around 2 o’clock. We met the Norwegians on the way in and they said that by 3am Kristoffer (Brun) was buckled and needed to be substituted, early this morning. He was still hungover.”
Addressing their latest win, Gary said:
“I think we pulled our best strokes ever, out there, for 2,000 metres. This is my first ever world championship final and, I think, it’s Paul’s seventh. So my record is better than his, 100%. If I can keep that up, it’d be good!”
“It’s exciting for the whole team,” he added. “We have four boats here in the world championship finals… all the athletes around this Irish team, this year, have shown great independence and they’ve taken responsibility in themselves, and accountability for their own training and results.
“It’s evident that the team has belief and the athletes have belief, and this has been coming a long time.”
The O'Donovan brothers claim that a night out on the town in Plovdiv was what set them up for 'the best strokes we ever pulled in our lives'! #RTESport pic.twitter.com/nSyr9Duswp
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 15, 2018
