Irish rower Sanita Puspure is hoping for an improvement in conditions in Lagoa when she bids to reach an Olympic semi-final on Tuesday.
Puspure battled her way through difficult water to qualify from her heat on Saturday, but conditions worsened on Sunday and resulted in the postponement of the full slate of scheduled races at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.
"I might as well have been sailing to be honest, it would probably be more efficient. It was pretty bad," the Cork-based competitor told RTÉ Sport.
"The winds were throwing the boat around at different angles and it was pretty challenging to get your strokes in.
"My boat was full of water up to the deck, so you can only imagine how much water was coming into the boat. We've been training in rough conditions but we wouldn't have even trained in this."
We've been training in rough conditions but we wouldn't have even trained in this."
The boats are back on the water today, and two-time Olympian Puspure reckons her hopes rest on continued easing of wind speeds ahead of her quarter-final tomorrow.
Asked to assess her chances, the 34-year-old said: "I don't know if the weather is like this.
"I'll be praying for a little less wind. I'm usually pretty okay with the rough conditions but this? I think a lot depends on what boat you have and how good it is when it is being thrown around.
"I have a very good boat but it's not quite suited for that, it's better for flat water racing which we had been hoping for."
