The next Emma Twigg or Mahe Drysdale is sure to be among the 28 home-grown novice rowers who appeared on the Clive River at the Hawke's Bay Regatta this week.
If there's anyone who should know who the next potential Olympic rowing star could be, it's Emma's father Peter, who was the coach of the Hawke's Bay Rowing Club's girls novice team and Mike Trautvetter, who was in charge of the club's boys novice rowers.
"There's always a potential Emma Twigg out there, but from here on it's about keeping them in the sport, which is hard enough, and building their experiences together as a team," Mr Twigg said.
This year the club had 12 novice girls and 16 novice boys, one of the largest groups of young rowers the club had seen. All were looking for race experience at the Hawke's Bay Regatta before heading to the North Island Championships in a few weeks' time.
"What they learn here is about preparation of their boat and for race conditions," Mr Twigg said. "A lot of it is about organisation and about working as a team.