Canoeing: Champ notches another

Lisa Carrington is training harder to stay at the top. File photo / Brett Phibbs

Reigning Olympic and world champion canoeist Lisa Carrington added another national crown to a bulging trophy case - and then said the training is getting tougher each year.

It wasn't a complaint from the 24-year-old Carrington, merely an observation that, to stay ahead even of local youngsters on the way up, more work had to be done.

Carrington captured the K1 500m crown on the second day of the New Zealand canoe sprint championships yesterday, comfortably easing away from a quality field. But if her younger rivals hoped to catch her napping - the nationals doubling as her first regatta of the season - they had another think coming.

"I'm always really nervous going into nationals, having not raced any of the young girls through the year and you never know what they're going to do," Carrington said. "It went how I wanted it to go and kind of proved what I'm doing in training is working well."

Carrington (Eastern Bay) finished in 1m 50.42s, with North Shore's Teneale Hatton and Caitlin Ryan clocking 1m 53.39s and 1m 55.39s for second and third respectively. Rising Hawke's Bay star Aimee Fisher was just a second further adrift in fourth.

Carrington credits the unrelenting training of coach Gordon Walker, constantly seeking an edge to keep her in front of her international rivals: "Every year we slightly change training - Gordy is pretty good at learning from previous years and applying it. Each year, training is getting tougher and tougher but I think that's just as I'm getting older, I'm getting fitter and building on each year."

Carrington will race her favoured K1 200m distance today, as well as pairing with Kayla Imrie in the K2 200m, aiming to repeat their first-day win in the K2 500m.

Marty McDowell (Mana) sealed a notable double of his own, a day after winning the K1 1000m, pairing with North Shore's Zac Franich to win the K2 1000m. They finished in 3m 19.75s, just behind Australian visitors Lachlan Tame and Ken Wallace and ahead of Poverty Bay brothers Darryl and Jarrod Fitzgerald, who crossed in 3m 20.46s.

McDowell couldn't sustain the pace in the K1 200m, however, failing to progress past a stacked semifinal which saw reigning national champion Scott Bicknell edge his K2 partner Andrew Roy, with North Shore's Jamie Banhidi sealing the third qualifying spot. Tame posted the fastest time in the second semifinal, ahead of Wallace and Darryl Fitzgerald, while Arawa's Chris Nutford led home clubmate Steven Drabble and Craig Simpkins (Karapiro) in the third semifinal.

Today's final is the ideal stage for a New Zealander to shine, against Olympic champion Wallace and Tame, the reigning world surf ski champion.