World champions 2014: Emma Twigg

Emma Twigg's world championship win was in August in the Netherlands. Photo / AP

Emma Twigg: World champion rower(women's single scull)
Twigg's rowing season was a triumph tempered by trepidation. She was undefeated and won her first single sculling world championship in eight attempts, overcoming the likes of Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova and defending world champion Kim Crow. Rowing's world governing body Fisa acknowledged Twigg's achievements by naming her "female crew of the year".

The 27-year-old was poised to qualify the boat for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games next year but that is in doubt after her decision to accept a position in the one-year post-graduate Fifa masters course in the management, law and humanities of sport, taught across universities in Leicester, Milan and Neuchatel. Fees and living expenses are expected to be more than $100,000.

The course should open doors to prestigious sporting positions when Twigg retires but Rowing New Zealand see the move as a potential disruption of her Olympic preparations.

Since starting her course in September, she has continued to compete internationally. In October she won the women's double scull at the British national championships, and the Armada Cup in Switzerland.

Twigg argued the flexibility of single sculling meant she could train around study commitments. RNZ were not convinced, suggesting she defer entry until the year after the Games when they would be prepared to offer a sabbatical similar to Mahe Drysdale's after the London Games. Twigg declined that offer.

The governing body argued that 2015, Olympic qualifying year, was too important to have someone training away from the team.

They were also concerned it would create an awkward precedent, especially with athletes such as double sculling world champions Fiona Bourke and Zoe Stevenson capable of staking their own claim to the boat. Nine single sculling spots can be qualified at the 2015 world championships in France.

Twigg will receive no government funding until she rejoins the sport's centralised programme at Lake Karapiro. She knew the chances of her plan being accepted were limited as she embarked on a journey which, at best, will see her a pioneer or, at worst, a martyr.

In 2013, Twigg was coaxed back into the single after making some training trade-offs, such as more cycling and high-intensity work to create variety in her regime.

She hopes her subsequent training data will provide RNZ with a compelling reason to select her to qualify the Olympic boat at next year's worlds.

A more realistic option is someone else will qualify the boat before trialling against Twigg the following March in a re-enactment of the 2008 Drysdale-Rob Waddell duel before the Beijing Games.