NAME: SANITA PUSPURE

SPORT: Rowing AGE: 35 COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Latvia IRISH CONNECTION: Moved here with her husband in 2006 and became an Irish citizen in 2011 Sanita had a pretty successful career competing for her native Latvia as a youn gster. She won bronze in the single scull competition at the World Under-23 Championships in 2003 and took the gold the following year in the double scull at the World Student Games. A former policewoman, she and her husband decided to leave Latvia to go travelling in their early twenties. They spent some time in the UK before moving to Ireland in 2006. A year later, after taking a wrong turn while looking for Dublin Zoo, she happened across some rowers on the River Liffey and decided to once again hit the water, just weeks after having her second child.

Initially it was just to get fit and lose some weight but by 2009 she had won the single sculls event at the Irish Championships. She won gold again the following year and took the double sculls title too. Although her family were happily settled in Rush north Dublin, the mother-of-two moved them to Ballincollig, Co. Cork, in 2011 so she could train at the National Rowing Centre.

‘I knew if I wanted to have a chance, I would have to come to Cork at some stage,’ the motherof-two has explained. ‘My husband was completely against it at the beginning, but we had to. That was the biggest sacrifice I’ve asked my family to make, to move from Dublin to Cork.’ That same year she was granted Irish citizenship and began to compete for Ireland. She was Ireland’s only rower at the 2012 Olympic Games, where she reached the semi-finals.