Three Irish crews in contention for Olympic rowing places
Lucerne, In Ireland Ireland's The Qualification Pazzaia Olympic Rowing Konan Picture: At Regatta Switzerland
Three Irish crews have progressed to their respective finals at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne.
Konan Pazzaia in the men's single, Sanita Puspure in the women's single and the women's four will all go in finals on Tuesday morning hoping to join the six Irish boats which qualified at last year's World Championships. The event is the last chance to secure a spot at the Olympics.
Pazzaia, who rows for Queens University Belfast, won his quarter-final on Monday morning and after a short turnaround got back in the water for the semi-final.
Up against Tokyo silver medalist, Kjetil Borch from Norway, Pazzaia held his composure through the first three quarters of the semi-final, sitting in the lead position. Coming into the finish, Romania's Mihai Chiruta made his move and came through to win the race with Borch finishing in second and Pazzaia in third. He needs to be in the top two in the final to qualify for Paris.
Purpure (Old Collegians) won her semi-final on Monday, finishing nearly four seconds ahead of Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland. Janzen stayed close to Puspure for the first half of the race but the Cork-based rower pulled away in the second 1000m to post the fastest time of the semi-finals. A top two place in the final will secure Puspure a ticket to Paris and a place at her fourth Olympic Games.
The women's four of Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen), Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians), Natalie Long (Lee Valley), and Imogen Magner (Carlow) finished second in their preliminary race, behind Demark, on Sunday. Denmark led from the off and finished just over three seconds ahead of Ireland. It was clear water back to third with Ireland more than six seconds ahead of Poland. Hegarty and Lambe were part of the women's four which won bronze at the Olympics in Tokyo. Again, the top two in Tuesday's final will qualify for Paris.
Irish boats have already qualified in the men's and women's pair, the men's and women's double, and the men's and women's lightweight double.
The World Rowing website will have live streaming coverage of the finals on Tuesday.
9:50am women's four final
11:40am men's single A final
11:58am women's single A final