Kayaking: Fisher farewells coach in style

Aimee Fisher celebrates gold in the K1 500m final at the under-23 world championships in Romania. Photo/Balint Vekassy/canoephotography.com

It's fair to say Hawke's Bay kayaker Aimee Fisher's father Chris has been a little reluctant to brag about her feats over the years.

He preferred to let his daughter do the talking on the water and she's certainly done that. But after he watched Fisher complete the K1 200m and 500m double at the under-23 world championships in Romania yesterday, he had to agree ... "she's a global rock star in the sport now."

The 22-year-old Karamu High School product left some of the world's best paddlers in her wake on her way to New Zealand's first golds at the champs. These were the Kiwis first medals at this level since Fisher and Gisborne's Kim Thompson won bronze in the under-18 K2 500m in 2013.

"Aimee won both golds on a level playing field too,' her father explained.

He was referring to the fact the conditions were still for the finals after there has been a strong head wind earlier in the weekend which favoured his daughter when Fisher won her heats and semifinals for both events on her way to six wins from as many starts for the regatta.

"That 500m win is the most significant race of her career. Aimee hasn't liked the distance in the past but that victory will give her confidence for the future ... she's a little bit big for the 200m but she can experience pain better than most over 500m," Chris said.

One of three Hawke's Bay Kayaking Club members in action at the regatta (Elise and Hamish Legarth were the others), Fisher used the results as the perfect way to farewell coach Rene Olsen, who has guided her for the last three years with the national K4 squad but yesterday left to join the Great Britain coaching team.

"Even though it was a really stressful day and we had some really big goals, I just tried to enjoy it as much as possible," Fisher said.

"I've got this track record of really shanking it on finals day, even though I had some wicked races earlier in the week, but I just wanted it so bad, for Rene, to send him out in style and thank him for everything he's done."

Fisher, who used a borrowed boat for both events, won her 200m final in 40.096s, 0.568s faster than Hungary's Dora Lucz who beat her in a World Cup final earlier in the season. Fisher had less than four hours to prepare for her 500m final but admitted she reached into her stockpile of recent K4 performances and pulled out plenty of confidence.

"I'm not a big fan of K1 500s and I usually doubt myself but I thought 'hang on, we've put in some awesome team boat races over that distance this season' and I've been feeling really strong and really fit so there was no reason why I can't come out here today and put in a really strong performance."

The margin of victory was even greater, storming home in 1m48.948s, more than 2s quicker than Australian Alyssa Ball.

In the wake of Olsen's departure Fisher will be coached by Gordon Walker who also mentors New Zealand's multiple world and Olympic champion Lisa Carrington. Fisher's father agreed it couldn't be a more exciting time for New Zealand kayaking.

"We've got two girls with the same goals and same coach."

Fisher travels to France today to link up with Carrington, Kayla Imrie and Caitlin Ryan to prepare for a crack at the senior world championship K4 title in the Czech Republic later in August.

"The girls have been really supportive this weekend and it's going to be an exciting month training over here and building into the senior world champs. It's going to be cool seeing what we can do," she added.

Back in May Fisher, the 2016 Hawke's Bay Sportsperson of the Year, won four golds and a silver at two consecutive World Cup regattas. Add those medals to yesterday's golds and it's easy to work out who the hot favorite for the 2018 Hawke's Bay Sportsperson of the Year award is.

Elise Legarth was a member of the Kiwi under-23 K4 500m crew which finished eighth in their A final. Her brother and Arawa's Dylan Neal-Hill were sixth in their K2 under-18 B final and their under-18 K4 crew finished eighth in the semifinals.