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Irish rowers Sanita Puspure and Aifric Keogh set two world records over the weekend
The couple was participating in Rowing Ireland’s virtual regatta, which brought together hundreds of competitors from across the country competing on ERG machines.
Puspure and Keogh set record times in their half-marathon age categories (21 km)
Sanita broke the world record for Lauren Schmetterling (USA from 01: 18: 14.8 in age group 30-39. The Ballincollig based world champion completed “the course” at 01: 18: 13.6.
Aifric broke the category record 19-29, beating Brooke Mooney’s (USA) time of 1: 19: 12.6 set this year by posting a time of 01: 18: 59.9.
Sanita said: “I started the session without thinking much about the records, but I felt good and decided to give it a try. It’s not a bad rooftop day!
Keogh added: “It was the first time I had done a half marathon in the erg, so I didn’t know what to expect. My plan was to keep the first half stable and then, if I felt good, try to keep going for the second half.
“It was fun trying a new challenge during lockdown, but now that it’s done, I won’t be in a rush to do it again!”
Rowing Ireland Executive Director Michelle Carpenter said: “Rowing Ireland along with our partners Kinetica Sports were delighted to launch our first virtual regatta this weekend. We saw this as an opportunity to engage all of our members across the country of 9 to 90 years together with our high performance Olympic Athletes in a virtual regatta We are overwhelmed with the participation and the entries.
“I want to congratulate our athletes Sanita Puspure and Aifric Keogh who have broken World Indoor records this morning. As we await confirmation of Concept II, we will continue to watch enthusiastically as clubs continue to submit their tickets today and tomorrow. It may be another weekend of closing holiday week for everyone.
“However, at Rowing Ireland we are delighted to continue to engage and support our members during this difficult time for all.”
At lunchtime, Sunday Rowing Ireland reported that the event, sponsored by Kinetica, had more than 800 participants and the competition continued until 5pm on Monday.
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