Ohope's Lisa Carrington has embraced the lift in competition by winning her third world cup kayaking gold medal in two weeks in Germany.
Competition increased significantly in the second world cup of the year at the weekend, with double the nations and more than triple the number of athletes fromlast week's opening regatta in Portugal.
The 25-year-old showed her winning habit is going to be hard to shake, fighting off Poland's Ewelina Wojnarowska to claim the K1 500m title in 1min 50.199secs at the Duisburg venue on Saturday night.
Carrington led by 0.35 seconds at the halfway stage but had to overcome a determined finish by her Polish rival to win, with Volha Khudzenka (Belarus) third.
"I'm really happy with the race itself because I could really work hard - the calibre this weekend was pretty high and the racing was strong so I really had to push it," Carrington said. "It's always nice to get the most out of myself."
Carrington didn't race the K1 200m - the event in which she's the defending world and Olympic champion - though she will attempt both distances again in Denmark next week.
Once again, she wasn't the only Kiwi female to shine, with Kayla Imrie and Aimee Fisher collecting bronze in the K2 200m in their first race together.
Imrie and Fisher finished the sprint in 38.819, easily within strike of winners Lani Belcher and Angela Hannah (Great Britain) and runner-ups Sabine Volz and Conny Wassmuth (Germany) who clocked 38.218 and 38.375 respectively.
