New Zealand rower Emma Twigg has thrown down the challenge ahead of the Rio Olympics to Australia's golden girl Kim Brennan with a crushing win in her national titles.
Twigg didn't compete internationally in 2015 and in her absence Brennan (nee Crow) went undefeated through the year in the women's single scull, including taking the world crown with a commanding victory.
Twigg was the last person to beat Brennan, at the 2014 world championships.
Because she missed last year's titles when she took a year off to study Twigg hasn't qualified for Rio and must do so through a regatta in Switzerland in May.
But the 28-year-old showed she's on track to do just that, claiming her seventh national title in her pet event in racing on Lake Karapiro in Waikato.
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Competing against a high-class field containing reigning double sculls world champions Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane and defending champion Lucy Spoors, Twigg won by more than five seconds to regain the crown she won for six successive years from 2009 to 2014.
Twigg was thrilled by the margin.
"We have fantastic depth (in New Zealand) so to finish five seconds ahead of those girls is really pleasing," Twigg told the Rowing New Zealand website.
"But I'm certainly aware that the rest of the world will be working hard and the standard that I will face (later in the year)."
