Oar-some Twigg scoops top HB award

ANENDRA SINGH
Real athletes row, they say, and everyone else just plays games.
There must have been some degree of agreement from the judges last night as junior world champion rower Emma Twigg was hailed the Hawke's Bay Today/Radio Network Sports Person of the Year at a glitzy, more entertainment-focused Telecom/gen-i-sponsored 2005 Hawke's Bay Sports Award ceremony at the Pettigrew-Green Arena in Taradale.
After receiving the award from HB Today editor Louis Pierard, Twigg thanked Bay merchant banker Sam Kelt who, through Kelt Capital, granted her a decade-long sponsorship only weeks before she blitzed the Beetzsee regatta course in Brandenburg, Germany, for the world single-scull gold medal in August last year.
"Sam's not just a sponsor. He's also a friend. Not everyone can say that about their sponsor," she said on receiving the award.
"A fabulous athlete", "an incredible work ethic", "an insatiable appetite for continuous improvement" and "a wonderful role model" were some of the idioms used to describe Twigg.
The former Napier Girls' High School headgirl's domination of the world championship final was such that she led from the green light and finished as the only junior world champion not having to sprint to the finish.
Her proud parents, Peter and Kerry Twigg, of Napier, were among the 30 Kiwi supporters at the champs and while Kerry was at the ceremony last night to see Twigg receive her award, Peter was with the Napier Boys' High School Maadi Cup rowing team in Twizel.
Earlier last night, the 19-year-old Waikato University student had also claimed the Lion Foundation Junior Award. Her fierce loyalty to her roots in the Bay was reflected during a recent training spell at Lake Karapiro. It is understood only a few seagulls at the lake heard her break into a rendition of her secondary-school song, Girls in White and Blue, Come Let Us Be Jolly.
Her former school acquaintances believe she could easily have been a Black Stick today if she had so desired, having made the NGHS first XI hockey team as a fourth-former. The 2005 awards are believed to have had the strongest line-up of nominees in the history of the Sport Hawke's Bay-organised event.
Among the hopefuls for the supreme award last night were Unison Masters Award winner Kay Glenny, the Tremains Team Award winners Kelt Capital Magpies rugby team, and Napier Courier/Hastings Leader Senior Award winner and professional golfer Doug Holloway.
Former No 1 Bay amateur Holloway, who was competing in the adidas/Taylormade Hastings Golf Club Pro-Am yesterday, faced a stiff challenge from high-calibre nominees in the senior category, such as surf lifesaver Nikki Cox, ex-Black Cap Lance Hamilton, Tall Black and New Zealand Breakers captain Paul Henare, Magpies Michael Johnson and Clint Newland, Olympic 800m runner Jason Stewart and Belgium-based professional cyclist Jeremy Vennell.
And there was also Waipukurau's Westley Gough, a member of the New Zealand team that won gold at the world junior cycling championships in the 4000m teams' pursuit in Vienna, in August.
That showed how tough it must have been for the judges, former SportToday reporter Russell Williamson, SportToday sports reporter Shane Hurndell, former Silver Fern and Eastern Regional Netball development officer Tanya Dearns, radio personality Ross Holden and sports-quiz whiz Terry Parkin.
Former Magpie Bill Davis, now living in Rotorua, ex-New Zealand and Central Districts cricketer Mike Shrimpton and champion boxer, the late Barry Brown, set the tone for the night with Davis and the other two recipients' representatives receiving plaques for their induction into the Unison Hawke's Bay Hall of Fame.
Jazz and blues singer Margo Pierard and jazz pianist Wil Sargisson and Friends entertained the audience until midnight.
Willy de Wit was master of ceremonies for the event. Audience numbers mushroomed from 330 last year to 410.