Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh are taking home the silver medals for the Women's Pair as racing finishes up in Lago di Varese. Up against reigning World Champions Veronique Meester and Ymkje Clevering of the Netherlands, the crew from Galway had a tough race ahead. Ireland were the quickest boat through the second half of the race and brought it right down to one second between themselves and the Netherlands when they got to the line.
"It's our second event since Worlds, our second event in the pair together, so we're constantly learning and this is a good start to the Olympic year," said Fiona Murtagh. On the last few months since the World Championships, Aifric Keogh said, "We've had a really good winter together. I think this is the longest we've ever been in one boat, usually it's a lot of chopping and changing, so that's been nice, it gives us the space to try things out."
Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen RC), Natalie Long (Lee Valley RC), Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians BC) and Imogen Magner (Carlow RC) crossed the line in fourth position in the Women's Four, just missing out on the podium. Coming through the pack in the middle of the race, it was the second half that Ireland really kicked into it, with their final quarter being their fastest. Both Great Britain and the Netherlands have already booked their spots for this year's Olympic Games so it's all to play for when it comes to the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May.
Sanita Puspure racing for Old Collegians BC finished 5th in the A Final of the Women's Single Scull. Sitting in sixth place right up until the last 500 meters, Sanita started to wind it up for the last quarter moving as the third fastest boat, enough to bring her up a place to fifth. The podium positions went to Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands, Alexandra Foester of Germany and Inger Seim Kavlie of Norway.
Next up from the High Performance team is the European Championships taking place in Szeged, Hungary from April 25th to 28th!
Sunday Results
- Women's Pair -> SILVER
- Women's Four -> 4th
- Women's Single -> 5th
