Emma Twigg capped off a remarkable rowing career by winning the silver medal in the women’s single sculls today.
The 37-year-old New Zealander, the defending Olympic champion in the single sculls, has been competing at her fifth Olympics, stretching right back to Beijing in 2008. She was the junior in the New Zealand team then, when the senior figures included Rob Waddell and the Evers-Swindell twins.
This was her 126th single sculls race representing New Zealand at international level.
In the final, she had to concede best to brilliant Dutch rower Karolien Florijn, who has won the world title for the past two years.
Florijn stamped her mark on the race early and had a significant lead by the 500-metre mark.
Twigg was the only rower who seemed capable of testing Florijn and in the 1000-metre segment in the middle of the race she bit into the Dutchwoman’s lead so that with 400 metres remaining there was just the sniff of an upset.
However, Florijn remained strong and Twigg faded slightly after her mid-race exertions.
In the end Florijn won in 7min 17.28s, Twigg was second in 7min 19.14s and Lithuanian Viktorija Senkute was third in 7min 20.85s.
Twigg’s single sculls placings in successive Olympics have been 9, 4, 4, 1, 2. That’s some record, especially when her world championship record is factored in – one world title, four second placings and two thirds.
Twigg first represented New Zealand at world championship level as a 19-year-old at Eton in 2006, when she was in the eights crew that finished 7th.
She was delighted with her performance in today's final, saying: "It feels as good as gold did three years ago. Honestly, I'm super proud of that race. I really just went for it."
Twigg said she looked across at Florijn with about 500m remaining and thought there was a chance to catch her, but her legs gave up on her.
"But I'm stoked - what a way to finish my career. It's amazing to come away with a medal, and to be part of a wider team effort. It's just blown my mind."
Reflecting on her long career, she said: "I was proud after Tokyo. So this was always going to be a cherry on top. And it certainly had its ups and downs. Even until a month or so ago I was really questioning whether I'd be here and in good form, so this week's been a blast for me, and I didn't want it to end, really.
"After that race I'm quite happy that that will be the last."
Tom Mackintosh looked a likely bronze medallist for much of the journey in the men's single sculls final, which was delayed an hour because of transport problems.
German Oliver Zeidler, who eventually won in 6min 37.57s, and Yauheni Zalaty dominated the race, but Mackintosh rowed steadily and by 1500m was solidly placed in third.
However, he tired noticeably over the final stages and was overtaken by Simon van Dorp of the Netherlands and Belgium's Tim Brys. Mackintosh finished fifth, 12 seconds behind Zeidler.