Emma Twigg (also inset) need not say anything. PHOTOS/AP
Emma Twigg (also inset) need not say anything. PHOTOS/AP
Coach: Hawke's Bay golden girl needs Rowing NZ help
Will they do a Sonny Bill Williams with world champion rower Emma Twigg?
"It's a pity Rowing New Zealand aren't helping her because she's opting for this Fifa education thing through soccer," said Cedric Bayley last night in Hawke's Bay after the 27-year-old won gold at the World Championship regatta in Amsterdam early yesterday.
"They shouldn't be trying to knock her down but work together with her," said the Clive-based Hawke's Bay Rowing Club coach who was Twigg's first mentor.
Single sculler Twigg raised her arms in jubilation after beating defending champion Kim Crow, of Australia, by 2.38 seconds to stop the clock at 7:14:95.
Draped in a New Zealand flag, the former Napier Girls' High School student continued celebrating on the podium during the medal ceremony before and after the rendition of God Defend New Zealand.
Her maiden gold medal at senior level came after a decade-long drought when she won the junior world crown in 2005 and followed it up with the world under-23 title two years later. She has added to bronze and silver medals at the last three worlds.
Twigg, who is based at Cambridge and trains at Lake Karapiro, is putting rowing on the back burner for the next 10 months to pursue academic studies in Europe.
Emma Twigg of NZ, center, celebrates after winning the Women's Single Sculls event.
She has ambitions to claim her perch back ahead of the countdown to the Rio Olympics in 2016 but Rowing NZ has reportedly said her sabbatical would jeopardise her selection.
That she won't be in the nationals equation next year means she will be deemed ineligible for her country next year. The World Championship next year is the qualifier for Rio.
Bayley said Twigg packed a steely resolve and would have no qualms about studying and training.
"I think she's fairly determined and once she says she'll do something she'll prove herself right.
"She won't be just sitting there studying books but also out there rowing, knowing her mindset.
"She's a very smart girl who comes from a very good Hawke's Bay family," he said, adding Twigg would always have the backing of the Bay club.
The coach from Fern Hill has fond memories of Twigg who started rowing in Clive River in 2001.
"She had something special. She used to turn up even before she started rowing to watch her brother, Jamie, who had started a year earlier.
"She'd stand on the bank with her parents watching and she must have thought at some stage, 'I can do this'."
He suspects she tried to emulate former Bay women's pair two-time Olympic gold medallists, twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindells.
Twigg got into the fours and eights boats but when she got to NGHS not too many students were into rowing so she switched to single sculls.
"She could move the boat around very well," he said, revealing he asked her father where she got the strength but he was bereft of ideas.
"The combined genetic make up of the parents has produced an exceptional talent."
The former NGHS head girl was eloquent and never looked back, emulating Caroline Evers-Swindells' steps. Bayley said although it took Twigg a decade to nail the gold, it was normal because women took longer to mature in the sport.
