Canoeing: Carrington to tackle surf

Lisa Carrington has the talent to have a serious crack at the canoeing double at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Photo / AP

No rest for the supremely talented; no sooner will world champion paddler Lisa Carrington unpack her bags this week than she'll be preparing for another international sports excursion.

Carrington, who defended her world K1 200m title in Duisburg on Sunday night, is off with the New Zealand surf lifesaving team to the surf rescue challenge this month. The team of 12 athletes leave for Japan on September 16.

So if you see someone who looks like Lisa Carrington out on her surf ski on a Bay of Plenty beach in the coming days, it probably is, turning her attention to the ski race, and taplin and ski relays.

"It's more than just racing for me," Carrington said yesterday. "It's about the people and the family that surf lifesaving is. I love competing and especially when it's at a high level for New Zealand.

"It'll be a new experience; I've never been in a New Zealand surf lifesaving team. It's more of a team sport than individual so it'll be fantastic for me."

Carrington backed up her 200m title by winning bronze in the K1 500m event a day earlier. Having won the double at two of the three World Cups this year - and five of the six titles on offer this year altogether - it proves conclusively she has the talent to have a serious crack at the double at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

"It's my intention to keep going with both events and see how they progress. For me it's all about learning and improving," she said.

Those who might argue finishing third in the longer event - in her first year contesting the distance on the world stage - was a disappointment, will get short shrift from the Ohope 24-year-old. "Coming third was great, I'm absolutely stoked.

"The girls I'm racing are multiple Olympic champions and when I first started kayaking they were around so it's awesome to be able to race to such a high standard."

As for the 200m, Carrington is setting the standard and, with each victory in an event decided by split seconds, raising the bar just a touch.

Her coach Gordon Walker made the point that in every outing a different competitor steps up to push Carrington to the limit. That she has consistently held them all off speaks volumes for her inner resolve.

"It's so important to have that competition and have those girls really challenging me so I can improve and be best I can.

"I love the 200m and I am racing some amazingly fast girls."

Each discipline plays a part in her development for the other and she stresses the importance of being stretched.

"I need the challenge and the 500m is giving me that. The greater the challenge, the more I can get out of myself."

New Zealand finished the worlds with three medals. North Shore's Teneale Hatton's gold in the non-Olympic K1 5000m with a terrific display, winning by 22 seconds, gave the Kiwis a 1-2 punch on the final day's racing.

Canoe Racing New Zealand had its high performance funding raised for the new Olympic cycle from $3.38 million to $4.8 million.

Throw in Hatton and her K2 500m teammate Rachel Dodwell having made the A final in Duisburg to cap their first year together, the sport can argue convincingly that looks like money well invested.