Carrington makes it No.9

TITLE No.9 COMING UP: Lisa Carrington on the way to her ninth national K1 200-metre title at the New Zealand canoe sprint championships at Lake Karapiro yesterday. Picture by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

LISA Carrington has wasted no time getting her kayaking season under way, collecting the ninth New Zealand K1 200-metre title of her illustrious career at the national canoe sprint championships at Lake Karapiro yesterday.

A week after winning Halberg sportswoman of the year, Carrington returned to the water in style, clocking 39.74 seconds over her specialist distance to head off a quality field.

Under-23 world champion Aimee Fisher (Hawke’s Bay) was second in 41.38s, just ahead of North Shore’s Caitlin Ryan, who finished in 41.53s.

Carrington, who has Gisborne family links, skipped the individual races at the nationals last year following the Rio Olympics but showed she had lost none of her hunger a decade after her first national title.

“Last year, I was watching and I kind of forgot how nervous I get for nationals so it was nice to be back here racing the girls — you have to come here expecting to race world-class paddlers,” the Eastern Bay paddler said.

“I’ve got a lot of experience in the event but it was nice to have a good hit-out six months out from worlds.”

Lake Karapiro turned on stunning conditions for the first of three competition days, which also coincided with the opening of Canoe Racing New Zealand’s new high-performance centre.

It also made for sharp times and close racing, especially in the men’s K2 200m, where North Shore’s Ashton Reiser and Karl McMurtrie flew home in 34.20s, just 0.40 of a second clear of Mana’s Ethan Moore and Kurtis Imrie.

“We lost a little bit of sleep last night thinking about how it would pan out but we’re pretty happy with the win,” Reiser said.

“It was pretty close on the line and the boys have been putting a bit of pressure on us over the past few months, but we got there.”

It capped a good day for McMurtrie, who was also the leading Kiwi in the K1 200m, pipping Imrie by just 0.06 of a second. They both trailed Japanese visitor Momotaro Matsushita, who clocked 37.59s to win.

Reiser and McMurtrie joined Tim Waller and Tuva’a Clifton to win the men’s K4 200m, heading home Arawa and Mana crews, while Elise Legarth and Fisher combined to win the women’s K2 200m, from Mana’s Kayla Imrie and Danielle Watson.