Olympic hopeful Sanita Puspure has considered retiring during Covid-19 lockdown

The two-time world champion rower admits it's been a difficult period as restrictions disrupt training

Two-time world champ Sanita Puspure has considered retiring during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The 38-year-old rower is among the favourites to medal in Tokyo next year - but is among approximately 200 Irish Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls hamstrung by travel restrictions forcing them to work at home and away from training centres.

While rival nations have seen facilities open up in recent weeks, the Olympic Federation of Ireland has been frustrated in its attempts to get travel permits beyond the current 5k limit for potential Olympians and Paralympians.

Sport Ireland are on board, as are the Department of Sport and Ministers Shane Ross and Brendan Griffin.

But, as OFI president Peter Sherrard describes it, there has been a "bottleneck" in terms of getting the green light from the Department of Health.

"This is quite a blunt approach and it's a little bit of a last resort at this stage," admitted Sherrard on going public with the OFI's concerns.

“There's a risk that people will just forget about Olympic athletes. They’re not professionally paid to do this and they may only get one shot.

"As a country, I think we owe that to them so it’s very, very important.  For the sake of a simple letter can we not just get that sorted?".

Puspure feels fortunate that she has been able to get back on the water over the last two weeks as she lives close enough to Rowing Ireland's Ovens base in Cork. But many of her colleagues don't.

On a Zoom conference organised by the OFI, Puspure revealed how difficult it has been over the past 10 weeks.

She believes that situation must be resolved as she outlines that it's not just medals that could be on the line if the restrictions on facilities and access continues, but careers.

"Do you know what? It could be the difference between retiring and not retiring," she said.

"I'm not going to say that it never crossed my mind, 'can I handle another year?' and then sitting at home and challenging yourself every day with training on the rooftop, looking at your reflection in the door.

"Like, it's not easy. I know there are higher priorities at the moment in the country.

"But it takes time to gel the crew, to row them in sync and get that boat running. It takes weeks, months even, and then you have to try to do the same, not just at normal speed but at higher speed.

"It takes skill and practice, practice, practice, and you can't get that on a rowing machine.

"It's not the same as you would get in the boat, it's a different type of skill, it's finesse that you just can't do on the land."

Puspure, who hasn't been off the water this long since she had her children, explained how difficult it was for her to train at home, and also to do so without colleagues working alongside her.

"It has been a massive mental challenge to get it all done in that environment, where your kids come and ask you 20 questions, 'Are you done yet' when you're doing your three-hour bike," she said.

"We've done our best, we've tried to keep the volume but then the volume dropped as well because I think mentally we felt we couldn't handle the same amount of training as we would have if we were together on the water and pushing each other on. 

"It would be better the sooner we get back on the water, obviously complying to all the regulations to health and safety, from a physiological point of view but also for mental health.

"From my personal experience it has been very challenging."