-
Paula Twining, on half of Kiwi rowing pair Twining and Reymer - Source: Photosport
Comparisons between athletes are inevitable, but the women who have inherited the Evers-Swindell twins' sporting mantle are determined to row to their own beat.
Paula Twining and Anna Reymer are gradually coming to terms with what cycling's individual pursuiter Alison Shanks confronted once she was anointed as Sarah Ulmer's successor.
Replacing an Olympic legend is never easy though Shanks has made steady progress once she emerged from Ulmer's shadow.
Twining and Reymer's abilities will be under similar scrutiny when they leave for Europe on Friday among a 22-strong squad.
There they will contest two World Cups, the Henley Regatta and a world championship while in two seats forever associated with a couple of New Zealand's greatest Olympians.
It is not yet a comfortable fit for Twining and Reymer and understandably so, given they have barely rowed together in a double scull.
"We can't do anything about it," says Twining of their predecessors though she confesses the Evers-Swindells' legacy is also a motivating factor.
"They've had an amazing eight years. To see that it can be achieved is probably the biggest thing for me," says the 28-year-old after another early morning row on Lake Karapiro.
"I rowed with the girls in a quad in 2001. I've rowed alongside them for years here.
"To know it's an achievable goal, to get where they've got -- it's cool to have that there."
Though they still live in Cambridge, the twins are no longer a fixture at New Zealand Rowing's high performance centre on the banks of Karapiro.
Golden exploits
But their golden exploits are inescapable, not that Twining is particularly overawed.
"I don't find it daunting," she insists.
"We're a new crew and it's a new challenge for us. We're totally different people, we don't worry about having an expectation of being the twins."
The public would also be wise to view Twining and Reymer's development with a similar sense of realism.
Originally teammates in the women's eight, they only settled into the smaller boat in March under the guidance of coach John Robinson - and they are still testing the water.
"We're getting some good progress, but we've had a lot to work on. The more time we're in the boat, the better it's going to go -- the twins showed that," Twining says.
She and Reymer sat in close proximity in the eight, but they have only known each other a year so the all-important chemistry is still developing.
Ironically for all the comparisons made with the twins, Twining and Reymer's combination bears a closer resemblance to the old coxless pair.
Nicky Coles was nine years senior to Juliette Haigh during their productive partnership. Twining occupies a similar role, though the age difference is not as pronounced at four.
This is Twining's 12th year on the water; Reymer only took up the sport seriously when at Victoria University in 2005.
Although she was raised in Cambridge, rowing never occurred to Reymer until she tired of watching a former boyfriend competing.
"I got sick of being dragged to regattas and just watching. I probably needed to lose a bit of weight back then," the 24-year-old jokes.
"He chucked me out in a boat one day over in the Hawke's Bay, I had a paddle and quite liked it.
"I'm the sort of person that when I'm good at something I'll keep going with it and if I'm not I'll move on to the next thing."
Reymer perseveres
Being part of Vic's victorious crews at the Uni Games encouraged Reymer to persevere through the grades until she found herself sitting behind Twining when New Zealand unsuccessfully attempted to qualify an eight for Beijing.
That disappointment hardly lingered as Twining and Reymer felt the double was their destiny once the twins retired.
"We both sort of knew it's the boat we wanted to be in," Reymer says.
Twining agrees - the move was a tonic a dozen years into her career.
"Anna brings a lot of strength to the boat, she has a lot of freshness and ambition because she's fairly new to it and I've got the experience.
"In the past few years I've been in a bigger boat - three years in the eight, before that the quad or a four. To be in the double is a huge buzz for me."
Reymer, meanwhile, shares her stroke's attitude to the women that have gone before.
"With any boat, there's always someone that was in there before you. Mahe (Drysdale) could be thinking about Rob (Waddell) whenever he gets in a boat.
"We're doing our own thing, compared to the twins we're such a young crew. They rowed together for 10 years, it's early days yet for us."
Their first day of reckoning arrives at the World Cup regatta in Munich on June 19-21, a preamble to the world championships in Poznan, Poland, between August 23-30.
