Lisa Carrington nailed down yet another world championships title this week. Photo / AP
Lisa Carrington nailed down yet another world championships title this week. Photo / AP
Dame Lisa Carrington’s prospects of more Olympic medals in Paris next year could be complicated by a significant change to the competition schedule.
The kayaking timetable has been flipped, with the K4 events set to be raced first instead of its traditional spot as the finale, which has previously allowedpaddlers to focus on their solo and K2 pursuits before jumping into the big boat at the end.
And all of the semi-finals and medal races in Paris will be compressed into the final three days, whereas in Tokyo in 2021 they were spread across five days.
Carrington famously endured a gruelling schedule in Japan. She had 12 races across the six day regatta, claiming individual gold in the K1 200m and K1 500m and another triumph with Caitlin Ryan in the K2 500m, before a fourth placed finish in the K4 500m alongside Alicia Hoskin, Ryan and Teneale Hatton.
The six-time Olympic medallist won’t face as many races in Paris, with the unfortunate culling of the K1 200m, after political machinations at IOC level, but it is set to be a complex challenge, with the competition condensed across five days instead of the typical six.
Olympic legend Lisa Carrington will lead the New Zealand team at the upcoming ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships to be held in Nova Scotia, Canada. Photo / Ben Fraser
If New Zealand qualifies both team boats – and presuming Carrington is part of the pair and quartet – she will have a lot to juggle.
Instead of tackling each discipline as a separate chapter, the 33-year-old will have to constantly switch focus.
“Everything is turned on its head,” Canoe Racing New Zealand general manager of performance Nathan Luce told the Herald. “Usually the K4 is the last event, but they have flipped it and put the K4 as the first final.”
New Zealand don’t have the depth of the bigger kayaking nations – like Hungary, Germany and Spain – who can often afford to have specialist crews across disciplines. It makes it difficult for Carrington, who is the current anchor of the women’s K4 team but retains her solo goals.
“It’s a different dynamic,” agreed Luce. “When K4 was the last thing you could just go for it, nothing to lose. If the K1 is your chief priority, it makes it a little trickier because you have to manage an individual interest versus a team interest and they conflict each other in terms of fatigue and load on the body.”
Luce also points out the skillset is different across the three boats.
For her part, Carrington acknowledged the potential challenge.
“Yeah, it’s rough,” said Carrington. “I’m not fully across what the schedule is but Tokyo was all each event. And this time it’s kind of chopping and changing.”
Carrington competed in every discipline possible last time but is unsure of the scenario for Paris, assuming New Zealand qualify all three boats.
“It’s actually really tough to know, at this stage and also just has to be up to selectors and what’s best for the team,” said Carrington. “I mean, Tokyo was an incredibly tough schedule, but in a way it worked really well, because it each boat was done [separately] but this time, it’s really chop and change. So I think I’ll leave it up to the big guys to figure out what’s the best for the team and for performances.”
Luce said it was too early to discuss potential team configurations – including whether Aimee Fisher could return to team boat racing after a long absence – and New Zealand was just focussed on qualifying as many Olympic berths as possible.
Carrington and the rest of the squad are currently preparing in Hungary, ahead of the world cup regatta in Szeged later this month (11-14 May).
After that they will return home for another training bloc, ahead of the world championships in Germany in September, where Olympic qualification spots will be on the line.
