K1 golden double

JOY, RELIEF: Lisa Carrington celebrates after winning the women’s K1 500m at the canoe sprint world championships in Hungary overnight (NZ time). Picture by Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP

Kiwi kayak great Lisa Carrington has powered to an exhilarating golden double at the canoe sprint world championships, adding the K1 500-metre title to the K1 200m crown she banked earlier.

Carrington, who has family links to Gisborne, obliterated a world-class field in Szeged, Hungary, this morning (NZ time) to regain the K1 500m title she last snared four years ago in Milan.

She had already crushed the K1 200m field on Saturday.

From the first few strokes today, the 30-year-old from Ohope asserted her dominance and by 150m she was already, remarkably, a boat length up on the field.

By the halfway mark she held a monster 1.93sec advantage on her nearest pursuer, the 2017 world champion Volha Khudzenka, with the defending world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Danuta Kozak of Hungary a distant fourth.

Khudzenka, of Belarus, marginally closed the gap in the second half but Carrington was never seriously challenged.

Carrington crossed the line in 1:55.76 – 1.63sec clear of Khudzenka.

Competing on home water, Kozak made a spirited charge but had to settle for bronze in 1:58.01.

Carrington has now won 17 world championship medals, including 10 golds, in her extraordinary career. By striking gold today she also ensured her country qualified a boat in the women’s K1 500m at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The double gold medallist later returned to the water alongside Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan for the A Final of the women’s K4 500m as the New Zealand crew placed fourth.

The Kiwis, who 12 months ago won a world championship silver medal, made a decent start and narrowly trailed Belarus over the first third of the race.

However, by halfway, Hungary, the defending champions, had made a significant move to nudge ahead of Belarus with New Zealand sitting third — 0.41sec further back.

The host nation stamped their authority on the race to build on their advantage and ran out impressive winners.

The Kiwis had to settle for fourth but qualified their boat for the Olympics.

Quaid Thompson, 21, from the Poverty Bay club, finished a respectable 12th in the long-distance men’s five-kilometre A Final.

Competing in a starting field of 35, Thompson completed the course in 21:14.72 — more than a minute behind gold medallist Aleh Yurenia of Belarus.

Thompson’s performance was a significant upgrade on the 2018 world championships final, where he placed 18th.

He had earlier finished seventh in the K1 1000m C Final.

Alicia Hoskin, 19, also from the Poverty Bay club, raced the women’s K2 500m A Final with North Shore paddler Caitlin Ryan early on Sunday.

They came ninth, just over five seconds behind the dominant gold medallists from Belarus.

Carrington said after winning the K1 500m that the competitors faced a strong headwind and she again had to be up for the challenge.

“It is always scary going out there knowing this is my one chance every year where I have to deliver my best performance.

“It is an event that challenges me hugely, so it is great to be able to nail it.”

Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie signed off their open world championship debut with a plucky display to place sixth in the B Final of the men’s K2 1000m.