IT IS ROWING AGAINST THE TIDE NOW

Puspure reveals calling it quits has crossed her mind

TWO-TIME world champ Sanita Puspure has considered retiring during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The 38-year-old rower is among the favourites to medal in Tokyo next year.

But while rival nations have seen facilities open up in recent weeks, the Olympic Federation of Ireland has been frustrated in its attempts to get travel permits beyond the current 5k limit for potential Olympians and Paralympians.

Sport Ireland are on board, as are the Department of Sport and Ministers Shane Ross and Brendan Griffin.

But, as OFI president Peter Sherrard describes it, there has been a “bottleneck” in terms of getting the green light from the

Department of Health.

“This is quite a blunt approach and it’s a little bit of a last resort at this stage,” admitted Sherrard (inset) on going public with the OFI’S concerns.

“There’s a risk that people will just forget about Olympic athletes. They’re not professionally paid to do this and they may only get one shot.

“As a country, I think we owe that to them so it’s very, very important. For the sake of a simple letter can we not just get that sorted?”

Puspure feels fortunate that she has been able to get back on the water over the last two weeks as she lives close enough to Rowing Ireland’s Ovens base in Cork. But many of her colleagues don’t.

On a Zoom conference organised by the OFI, Puspure revealed how difficult it has been over the past 10 weeks and claims it’s not just medals that could be on the line if the restrictions on facilities and access continue. “It could be the difference between retiring and not retiring,” she said.

“I’m not going to say that it never crossed my mind, ‘can I handle another year?’ and then sitting at home and challenging yourself every day with training on the rooftop, looking at your reflection in the door. It’s not easy.

“I know there are higher priorities at the moment in the country.

“But it takes time to gel the crew, to row them in sync and get that boat running. It takes weeks, months even, and then you have to try to do the same, not just at normal speed but at higher speed.

“It takes skill and practice, practice, practice, and you can’t get that on a rowing machine.

“It’s not the same as you would get in the boat, it’s a different type of skill, it’s finesse that you just can’t do on the land.”

Puspure, who hasn’t been off the water this long since she had her children, explained how difficult it was for her to train at home.

“It has been a massive mental challenge to get it all done in that environment, where your kids come and ask you 20 questions, ‘Are you done yet?’ when you’re doing your three-hour bike.

“From my personal experience it has been very challenging.”

BACK IN THE GROOVE Sanita Puspure feels fortunate to have been able to return to the water SWIM Ireland are anxious to get their facilities up and running again for their potential Olympic athletes and want the Government to take action now. “We are absolutely aware and it’s paramount in our minds that health and well being has to be at the forefront,” said performance director Jon Rudd (above). “So we have prepared very careful protocols for what is an extremely microscopic section of our population to be able to return safely to identified training venues that the public wouldn’t have access to. “But there’s a blockage that we all have to try to get over somehow. “There’s also the consideration that we have to have around the mental health of our athletes at this time.”