Our International 20 x 20 Women in Sport Award this week goes to our own Sanita Puspure who last weekend retained her single sculls world title, an incredible achievement. Sanita who moved to Ireland from her native Latvia in 2006 began competing in Ireland in 2010 before gaining full Irish nationality in 2011. In 2012 she became the first female sculler to represent Ireland at an Olympic Games since the Games in Moscow in 1980. She became a double Olympian in 2016 when she competed in Rio where she reached the quarter finals.
She originally took up rowing in Latvia aged 15, and in 2004 won gold in the Student Games in France. It is however in the last two years that her rowing career has taken off with gold in the 2018 World Championships, a further gold in the 2019 European Championships and then that second World gold last weekend.
In a sport where Ireland has begun to have worldwide success she is a standout competitor and a real inspiration to girls and women countrywide as to what can be achieved when determination, dedication and talent combine.