ROWING OLYMPIC QUALIFIER:IRELAND'S SANITA Puspure has to finish in the top four of six in one race today to qualify for the London Olympic Games. The Latvian-born Ireland sculler gave herself this chance with a compotent third-place finish in yesterday's semi-final of the single sculls at the Olympic Qualification regatta at Lucerne in Switzerland.

The first three places were the ones that mattered, and Australia’s Kim Crow swept into first and Iva Obradovic of Serbia made second her own. Puspure held third, but came under pressure from Tale Gjoertz of Norway in the final stages. Puspure, however, stepped up a gear to see off the young Norwegian, whom she had already beaten in the heats.

Britain lost their chance of a place in this discipline in London as Rachel Gamble-Flint could only finish sixth. France’s big hope, Sophie Balmary, missed out in the other semi-final.

As Puspure looks forward to today she knows she has to again up her performance – but she may well be able to do so. She had the fifth fastest time of the two semi-finals, and has both a better time and the advantage of having already beaten Kaisa Pajusalu, who finished third in the other semi, in this month’s World Cup in Belgrade.

The key for Puspure today may be to take out Genevra (Gevvie) Stone of the United States, who finished second to Fie Udby Erichsen of Denmark in that second semi.

“Sanita’s a tough lady. Having come this far I’m sure she’s not going to back away from a challenge,” said Ireland team manager Martin McElroy.

In a programme brought forward to the morning because of the prediction of stormy conditions later on – in fact the weather was excellent – Ireland’s other crew, the lightweight double scull, found the going tough and did not make today’s finals.

Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny could not force their way into the top four which fought it out for the critical top three places in a dramatic finish. Australia won, but early leaders Spain were just knocked out as Bulgaria and Austria – credited with exactly the same time – took joint second in a photo finish.

O’Donovan and Kenny, whose 17th place in the World Cup in Belgrade suggested that they had a lot to do if they were to make today’s final, finished fifth.

“Where we finished is probably not far off our place in that (event) at the moment,” said McElroy. “It was always going to be very tight.

“You always hope you may have closed the gap a little bit in the weeks between one set of racing and the next, but it is never that easy.

“They’ve put everything into it; they’ve tried really hard. All we asked of them was to put their best row out there. That’s what they’ve done,” concluded McElroy.

Puspure’s position, on results so far, is fourth to sixth in today’s race. But so much rests on which place she fills.