World champion Sanita Puspure has suffered a shock exit in the Olympic semi-final.
dreadful start proved her undoing and though she battled bravely through the middle section of the race she was unable to catch the four scullers ahead of her and trailed home in fifth place, nearly 11 seconds behind the winner Hanna Prakatsen from Russia.
Nine months short of her 40th birthday, Puspure will have to be content with an appearance in the B final in her third and almost certainly final Olympics.
It is a sad end to a marvellous career, which culminated post the 2016 Rio Olympics when she won world and European titles.
But the postponement of the Games last year proved a step too far for her. Her preparations were badly disrupted this year initially by injury and later illness and she didn’t compete in the European championship.
She made her competitive return in the Lucerne regatta but by then a new face had emerged as the queen of the single sculls.
Belarus-born Russian sculler Hanna Parkatsen, despite having no pedigree in the sport, suddenly emerged as the form sculler on the eve of the Olympics.
Still, Puspure’s form in the heats and quarter-final looked assured as she won both with consummate ease. She was drawn alongside Prakatsen in the semi-final and the race was billed as a showdown between the pair ahead of the final.
Perhaps they were distracted by each other but for whatever reason they allowed three other scullers forge ahead of them in the first 500m metres. Puspure was fifth and in trouble at the 500m mark and while 22-year Prakatsen had the power to recover, Puspure never managed to make up the ground on the others and her Olympic dream died.