Nine fine for Carrington
Lisa Carrington has wasted no time getting her kayaking season under way, collecting the ninth New Zealand K1 200m title of her illustrious career at the national canoe sprint championships at Lake Karapiro on Friday.
A week after winning Halberg sportswoman of the year, world and Olympic champion Carrington returned to the water in style, clocking 39.74secs over her specialist distance to head off a quality field.
Under-23 world champion Aimee Fisher (Hawke’s Bay) was second in 41.38secs, just ahead of North Shore’s Caitlin Ryan, who finished in 41.53.
Carrington skipped the individual races at nationals last year following the Rio Olympics but showed she’d lost none of her hunger, a decade after her first national title.
‘‘Last year, I was watching and I kind of forgot how nervous I get for nationals so it was nice to be back here racing the girls – you have to come here expecting to race worldclass paddlers,’’ the Eastern Bay paddler said. ‘‘I’ve got a lot of experience in the event but it was nice to have a good hit-out, six months out from worlds.’’
Lake Karapiro turned on stunning conditions for the first of three competition days, which also coincided with the opening of Canoe Racing New Zealand’s new high performance centre.
It also made for sharp times and close racing, none more so than in the men’s K2 200m, where North Shore’s Ashton Reiser and Karl McMurtrie flew home in 34.20secs, just 0.40secs clear of Mana’s Ethan Moore and Kurtis Imrie.
It capped a good day for McMurtrie, who was also the leading Kiwi in the K1 200m, pipping Imrie by just 0.06secs. They both trailed Japanese visitor Momotaro Matsushita, who clocked 37.59secs.