Lisa Carrington's bid for double gold came up a second short at the opening World Cup regatta in Duisburg, Germany last night.
Having pocketed her now-standard K1 200m gold 24 hours earlier, Carrington finished second in the K1 500m final to resurgent Hungarian paddler Danuta Kozak.
The double worldchampion Hungarian, who spent last year in team boats having beaten Carrington in 2012 and 2013, is back with her eye on the Rio Olympics. She offers a clear threat to Carrington's ambitions of completing a Games golden double.
Kozak clocked 1m 47.071s, with Carrington, third at halfway, easing up to take silver in 1m 48.196s, and Inna Osipenko-Rodomska of Azerbaijan third a further .072s back.
The three had gone clear early in the race and from then, it became a sorting out of the final placings on the dais.
Carrington had won the 200m crown in 38.880s, 0.672s ahead of Osipenko-Rodomska, with Pole Marta Walczykiewicz third and promising New Zealand teammate Aimee Fisher eighth in the final.
The women's K4 crew of Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Fisher and Kayla Imrie made a strong start but could not stay on the pace, finishing fifth in 1:33.801, 1.032s off a podium spot. Ukraine won in 1:32.046 with world champions Belarus second and Poland third. The sole New Zealand male paddler going to Rio, Marty McDowell, finished third in the K1 1000m C final in 3m 33.093s.
