Rowing Ireland went into the European Championships in Poland this weekend with high hopes and they delivered in style with one Gold and three Bronze medals and seven boats qualifying for Finals.

Sanita Puspure won the Gold medal in the Women’s Single Sculls and retained her European Championship. She is now a double European and double World Champion and building her reputation as one of Ireland’s most successful athletes of all time.

The other Irish medal winners were Fintan McCarthy in the Men’s Lightweight Single Sculls; Ronan Byrne and Daire Lynch in the Men’s Double Sculls; and Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe, Aileen Crowley and Aifric Keogh in the Women’s Fours.

Puspure won her Gold competing against crews from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Switzerland.

In addition to the medal performances, Tara Hanlon and Emily Hegarty finished fifth in the A Final of the Women’s Pairs event while Lydia Heaphy won the B Final in the Lightweight Women’s Single and the Lightweight Women’s Double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey finished 2nd in the B Final.

“Winning four medals, One Gold and three bronze is a brilliant accomplishment for Irish Rowing this weekend,” said Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni.

“Congratulations are due to all crews, coaches and support staff on the excellent performances and results.  Out of our seven crews entered, five reached the A Final in their category, and two achieved excellent results in the B Finals.”

“These results have continued our success this year at U23 and Junior European Championships. We now have nine medals from three competitions at three different levels.”

“We are not considered the underdog anymore, and we all need to do better and push the bar higher to keep our current level of international competitiveness.”