Irish Rower Wins Head Of Charles Regatta In Boston Over Weekend

European Rowing Championships 2014 bronze medallist Sanita Puspure traded her sculls for a sweep blade last weekend and took on the world's fastest eight at The Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts.

Flying the Irish flag in an international eight, made of up her sculling rivals, Puspure and her crew beat the American Olympic and World Champions, who are also the current world record holders.

Sanita was invited to be in the eight by Genevra Stone, the American sculler, who stroked the winning crew. Other crew members included the Czeck Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova, Lithuanian 2013 World Champion Donata Vistatairte, Canadian quad sculler Carling Zeeman, 2014 silver medallist Kim Crow from Australia, European silver medallist Chantal Achterberg from the Netherlands and Magdalena Lobnig from Austria. The crew was expertly coxed by the American Erin Driscoll.

The crew also split into small boats for the Saturday of the two day event and Sanita was teamed up with Zeeman in a double. They had an eventful race with a time penalty for missing a buoy and also had a crash under one of the bridges but despite this they finished fourth. The winning crew was the Dutch double who came 8th at the London Games, with Knapkova and Vistatairte second and another Dutch double coming third.

After the eights race, Puspure said: "It was really exciting to race in an eight for a change, especially as it was with the girls that I normally line up against. It was an honour to be asked to take part and I was proud to be representing Ireland and my club Old Collegians at such a prestigious event."

Puspure is now back to business preparing for Rowing Ireland's trials, which take part at the NRC on the 25th and 26th of October.