Rowing: Injury blow for duo in twins' wake

New Zealand's women double scullers Paula Twining and Anna Reymer have had a setback ahead of their first international rowing season together.

Reymer has a bulging disc in her back which has forced her out of the boat for at least two weeks.

The 23-year-old is expected to be fit again before the team head to Europe next month for series in Munich and Lucerne before the August world championships in Poznan, Poland.

"We were happy with our training times before the injury. We were competitive with other crews, sometimes topping them," said Reymer.

"It's now about getting up to a decent racing speed and that will come with practice and time.

"I won't be out too much longer. I'm already doing short bursts on the water and spending time on the erg.

"We've also got a good strength and conditioning coach, so he's been helping with rehab, along with support from physios and the like."

Twining is in the stroke seat and Reymer in the bow. They have come together under the coaching of John Robinson, who mentored them in last year's women's eight, having previously coached the men's pair to three world championship medals.

Twining, who turned 27 last week, tasted podium glory with silver in the women's quad back in 2001, in a crew with Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell and Sonia Waddell. However, she's been in and out of the squad since.

"Being part of the start of an Olympic cycle means we don't know what we'll come up against," says Twining.

"That's why it's exciting comparing figures when you're a new combination training against world champions like Mahe Drysdale and Duncan Grant. But unfortunately we haven't done any tests over 2000m due to Anna's injury."

Try as you might, it's hard to talk about the women's double sculls in New Zealand without bringing up the word "twins". Twining can appreciate the fact.

"It's actually really cool. We've got Georgina and Caroline's experience to draw on. We've got their numbers [statistical data] so we know what they were doing in their training, in their racing and in the gym. They're normal people, we can talk to them, and it gives us motivation to think we could do it too."

Reymer concurs: "You can't ignore their dominance but it's separate to what I'm doing. The double has always been a boat I've liked and Paula's been a long time in the sport building up to this."

The New Zealand team's first regatta is the World Cup in Munich from June 19-21.