SINEAD JENNINGS and her Olympic story has just got even more remarkable – after the Letterkenny woman confirmed that she was injured for five months before securing qualification.
Jennings reached the final of the lightweight women’s double sculls after finally realising her Olympic dream, coming sixth in the final alongside her partner, Claire Lambe.
Jennings, a 39-year-old mother of three who is a qualified doctor, didn’t get a chance to go to the qualifying regatta for Bejing in 2008, having failed to find a doubles partner for Athens in 2004, while she was just outside the qualifying time at track cycling for London in 2012.
Picture caption: Sinead Jennings arrives at a homecoming reception in Letterkenny last night. Picture by Geraldine Diver.
Before they qualified for Rio, after finishing third in the B final at Aiguebelette in France in the World Rowing Championships last year, Jennings suffered a rib injury that threatened to be her latest set-back.
[adrotate group=”81″]“I came back strong and won the trials three months after Hannah was born and won the next trials too, but then I fractured a rib in January and was out for five months,” Jennings told Donegal Sport Hub at a homecoming reception in Letterkenny last night.
“The boat was selected without me and they were quite happy to go without me.
[adrotate group=”70″]“The coach really pushed for me to go and I had to get out and race everyone in a trial. We performed well in the first regatta.
“If we hadn’t I’d have been out and they’d have gone with the original combination.”
In 2015, Ireland finished fifth in the European Championships in the women’s lightweight double sculls. Lambe was at the bow, but in the stroke seat was Denise Walsh.
However, Jennings managed to get her perch back. Alongside Lambe, Jennings came third at this year’s Europeans.
[adrotate group=”38″]It’s eight years now since she hoped to compete in Beijing, but never got the chance to go to a qualifying regatta with the politics of the day interfering.
That was after she couldn’t find a doubles partner for the 2004 Games in Athens, but at the Lagoa Stadium in Rio, she got through the heats and the semi-final before lining up at the final last Friday.
She said: “It was amazing to feel the boat going well.”
[adrotate group=”37″]Listen to the full interview below …
https://soundcloud.com/donegalsporthub-club-notes/sinead-jennings-homecoming-to-letterkenny
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