Dame Lisa Carrington has extended her remarkable legacy at the canoe racing world championships.
Less than 24 hours after anchoring the New Zealand K4 500m crew to an historic – and emotional - gold medal, Carrington has claimed more individual success, taking out the K1 500m final in Duisberg, Germany,with a sublime performance.
It’s her fourth gold medal in the discipline, to go with eight in the K1 200m sprint event.
The 34-year-old was pushed hard early by a quality field but went to another level in the second half of the race, before winning by more than a boat length.
“It’s been an amazing regatta,” said Carrington after the race. “I was really stoked with the K4 and it’s awesome to be able to turn up again and race like that, especially against some really tough competition.”
The result continued her recent domination of the longer sprint at this level. She first took world championship gold in this event in 2015, followed by consecutive silvers over the next two years. But she was imperious in 2019 – almost two seconds ahead of the next best paddler – then had a similarly impressive margin last year.
For a long time considered her secondary event, behind the K1 200m discipline, Carrington now has four golds, three silvers and a bronze in the 500m since her first participation in 2013.
She is also setting records that might never be broken. Saturday’s win was the 14th time she has made the top of the podium at world championship level. It’s an extraordinary feat for a New Zealander, given the next best is the three claimed by 1980s legend Paul MacDonald, but it will also take some beating in the international context.
Though people might take her achievements for granted, given her sustained run of success, this was another tough challenge.
There were strong contenders across the field, including highly-rated Hungarian Tamara Csipes, who claimed silver at the Tokyo Olympics, and Danish paddler Emma Jorgensen who had medalled at each of the last two Olympics in this event.
Carrington shot out of the gate to establish an early lead, though Jorgensen and Csipes weren’t far behind, trailing by half a boat length at the halfway point.
But Carrington lifted through the gears after that and they couldn’t stay with her. The 34-year-old could even afford to ease off slightly ahead of the line but still recorded 1.47.769, 1.33 seconds ahead of Jorgensen. Csipes was third in 1.50.699.
Carrington will have a chance to add to her tally on Sunday night (9:21pm), as she lines up in the K1 200m final. She is undefeated in the event for more than a decade and set the fastest time (38.898) from the semi-finals.
The new pairing of Aimee Fisher and Danielle McKenzie also impressed on Saturday, finishing third in their semi final to progress to the final. Fisher and Danielle will now have a chance to qualify a K2 Women’s Olympic quota spot, which would secure the full 6 female athlete spots for New Zealand. A top six finish in Sunday’s A final will achieve this, though there will be another opportunity to qualify at the Oceania Championships in March.
In other action on Saturday, Ashton Reiser and Quaid Thompson won their C Final races in the men’s K1 200m and men’s K1 1000m respectively, while Scott Martlew placed 7th in his VL3 200m semi final.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.
