The youngster, who pairs up with Erin Taylor in the K2 events, finished second at a grand prix round in Sydney in January and in May won gold at a World Cup round in Duisberg, Germany. Despite a couple of promising performances, she still went in to the world championships without a world ranking in the sprint event. But after picking up good wins in the heats and semifinals, it was clear Carrington was going to be a challenger in the final.
The youngster rose to the occasion, easily dispatching Poland's Marta Walczykiewicz, the 2009 world championship silver medallist, and Ukraine's Inna Osypenko-Radonsk, the 2010 silver medallist in the final.
The Kiwi's time of 39.998s was nearly half a second quicker than second-placed Walczykiewicz, to become the first New Zealand woman to claim a kayaking world championship medal.
The last time the New Zealand anthem rang out at a world championships medal presentation was in 2003 when Ben Fouhy won a K1 1000m title.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Carrington's golden performance is it was achieved while the sport in New Zealand is in turmoil.
The fall-out from the axing of kayaking greats Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald from the coaching programme continued into this year - and in the middle were the athletes; hardly conducive to making strides internationally. But throughout the public stoush Carrington remained focused on what she wanted to achieve.