#ROWING: Ireland’s Sanita Puspure joined the women’s pair in the A Finals of the European Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia by finishing second in her semi-final. Germany’s Annekatrin Thiele set the pace for much of the race, but Puspure pushed her hard in the closing stages and the German faded. Chantal Achterberg of the Netherlands then took up battle with Puspure and finished just over a second faster than the Ireland sculler.

In the repechage of the women’s double sculls, Eimear Moran and Monika Dukarska were never in contention and finished at the back of the field, almost 25 seconds behind the winners, the Netherlands.

European Rowing Championships, Day Two (Irish interest; selected results)

Men

Lightweight Single Sculls – C/D Semi-Final Two: (First Three to C Final): Croatia 7:10.20, 2 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:11.13, 3 Slovakia 7:11.54; 4 Netherlands 7:12.19.

Women

Pair – Repechage Two (First Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1

Ireland (L Kennedy, L Dilleen) 7:20.36, 2 Germany 7:22.89; 3 Czech Republic 7:24.99, 4 France 7:36.63

Double – Repechage (First Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Netherlands (N Beukers, I Janssen) 6:54.59, 2 Russia (E Potapova, M Krasilnikova) 6:57.25; 3 Czech Republic 6:58.72, 4 Italy 7:00.87, 5 Austria 7:14.31, 6 Ireland (M Dukarksa, E Moran) 7:19.82.

Single – A/B Semi-Final Two (Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Netherlands (C Achterberg) 7:36.98, 2 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:38.31, 3 Germany (A Thiele) 7:41.36; 4 Ukraine 7:44.95, 5 Sweden 7:45.46, 6 Latvia 7:57.97.