Golden duo

RISING STAR, OLYMPIC LEGEND: Alicia Hoskin (left) and New Zealand sporting great Lisa Carrington race in the K2 500 metres at the Blue Lake 2 canoe racing regatta over the weekend. Picture by Karlene Ward

Poverty Bay's Alicia Hoskin combined with Olympic great Lisa Carrington to produce one of the races of the weekend at the Blue Lake 2 canoe racing regatta.

The Hoskin-Carrington combo beat Kayla Imrie and Caitlyn Ryan by just 0.04 of a second in the final of the women's K2 500 on Lake Tikitapu near Rotorua.

Hoskin had earlier finished fifth after setting the pace in the K1 500 only for Carrington to seize control and go on to win from Ryan and Aimee Fisher, who could not be separated and finished second-equal.

Hoskin was also in the Canoe Racing NZ crew who won the open women's K4 500m, with Poverty Bay clubmate Alex Bermingham in the second-placed CRNZ crew.

Another Poverty Bay club member, Quaid Thompson, was second in a thrilling open men's K1 1000m final — Whanganui's Max Brown beating Thompson to the line by 0.16 of a second.

Poverty Bay club member Genna Robertson was among the stand-outs over the weekend, collecting mutiple gold medals over 200 and 500m in the under-16 and u18 divisions.

Carrington produced a perfect weekend of results — three golds over 200m and three over 500 — but admitted having to work hard for it.

“The K1 500m was a tough race and it hurt a lot but the result shows the strength of NZ kayaking at the moment, which is really cool.

“You can't have a bad day because there are so many quality girls.

“We have eight paddlers in the (CRNZ) women's squad. We are all on the same programme and it is great we are all performing. Year on year we just keep on getting better.

“It was good to be able to perform well at this time of the season. What this weekend shows is the fitness and strength is there, it is just that fine-tuning that is needed to perform at a peak for the big international competitions.”

Poverty Bay Kayak Club won six gold, three silver and three bronze medals over the two days. More on their efforts to follow.