Lisa Carrington claimed gold in the K1 500m at the world cup in Portugal. Photo / Brett Phibbs
New Zealand kayakers picked up an expected gold and a surprise silver on the second day of the first world cup of the season in Portugal tonight.
While Lisa Carrington needed every bit of her Olympic and world championship experience to hold off a Hungarian charge in the K1 500m
final, rising stars Caitlin Ryan and Aimee Fisher turned a good finals session into a great one by winning silver in the K2 500m.
It's the first time the New Zealand champions have raced together internationally and they're focused more on their K4 boat with Kayla Imrie and Jaimee Lovett, but their performance in finishing just 0.36secs behind Hungarians Anna Kárász and Ninetta Vad has opened up Olympic prospects.
Carrington, meanwhile, had to overcome a slow start to beat Kárász and another Hungarian Krisztina Fazekas-Zur, clocking 1min 48.01secs, with the top-three all finishing within a second of each other.
Marty McDowell was the other Kiwi in action in finals, finishing seventh in the K1 1000m final.
