Tight racing amidst top NZ kayakers at Blue Lakes regatta

North Shore kayaker Karl McMurtrie. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

Karl McMurtrie made one big kayaking step up over the weekend but he's hoping there are many more to come.

The 20-year-old North Shore paddler won the K1 200m title at the Blue Lakes 1 regatta at Lake Tikitapu the traditional start of the Canoe Racing New Zealand season.

He flashed across the line in 37.3s , just ahead of his New Zealand under-23 teammates Kurtis Imrie (Mana) and Bay of Plenty's Taris Harker, who were 0.25s and 0.83s adrift respectively.

"I was pretty happy - it's been my goal for a few years to win an open 200m title but I've finally got it," McMurtrie said.

"It's only Blue Lakes 1 but it's a good start and the field was as good as we'll get at the moment and it's a huge jump from where I was before."

McMurtrie, Harker and Imrie - as well as Arawa's Ben Duffy - formed the New Zealand K4 that made the A final at the under-23 world championships in Romania in July.

They finished ninth, while Imrie recorded a classy fifth in the under-23 K1 500m.

CRNZ men's coach Fred Loyer knows his young squad need to start thinking big, however, and is moving the national men's programme from Auckland to Lake Karapiro in January.

Even though he's a North Shore product, McMurtrie for one is really looking forward to the move.

"It'll be a different environment from what we're used to but we usually do our camps there anyway so it will be like being on a full-time camp, or like racing overseas when we're living together and training together. That sort of intensity is what we need to get to the next level."

Imrie won the K1 500m crown at Tikitapu but was pipped in the K1 1000m final by Poverty Bay's Quaid Thompson.

Poverty Bay's Thompson, who is coached by former Olympic great and father Alan, repeated the win he clocked up in December last year at the same venue but this time his margin of victory was just 0.02s, posting 3:49.50 to Imrie's 3:49.52, with a desperate lunge on the line enough to take it.

Whanganui's Max Brown was third, with McMurtrie fourth.

Although Saturday's racing was held in glorious sunshine, conditions chopped up on the Sunday, with a stiff westerly breeze causing chaos at times.

Double world under-23 champion Aimee Fisher proved peerless in both environments, however, winning the K1 200m on Saturday and backing up with a choppy K1 500m victory on the Sunday, clocking 1:55.15, with her high-performance teammate Rebecca Cole (Waitara) second in 1:57.59 and Mana's Danielle Watson third in 2:00.29.

"That was really tricky but good practice - and it definitely kept things exciting," Fisher said.

"I've been back in the boat for a couple of weeks, just easing back into things and trying to have a bit of fun. It was great being back in New Zealand and coming out this weekend to do some fun K4s, being able to race with all the young kids as well.

"I feel like that's the best part of the sport, when you get to give your time back and share as much knowledge as possible."

Fellow Olympian Kayla Imrie, still easing her way back into training, busied herself in an IRB, providing event safety support and a spot of on-water coaching while she was at it.

The next national event of the season is back at Tikitapu, with the Blue Lakes 2 regatta being held in early December.