Carrington in prime form at nationals
Lisa Carrington showed she’s primed to defend her two-time Olympic crown with her display on the opening day of the New Zealand Canoe Sprint championships at Lake Karapiro yesterday.
Carrington, who collected her fourth successive Sportswoman of the Year award at the Halberg Awards on Thursday night, was a class apart in winning the open women’s K1 200m final.
The Eastern Bay paddler recorded a winning time of 38.50 seconds – just over half-a-second outside of her world best time of 37.898.
A full boat length behind was Hawke’s Bay’s Aimee Fisher, repeating her silver medal performance from last year in an eyecatching 39.69, with Caitlin Ryan (North Shore), the 2018 K2 500m world champion, taking bronze in 40.03.
The 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medal winner in the event and seven-times world champion in the class is working towards the Tokyo Olympics later this year.
‘‘I turn up every year trying to do my best, and today was all about making sure I got myself in a space where I could perform,’’ Carrington said. ‘‘I try not to worry about placings and hopefully this will allow me to do justice to my performance. But what is most pleasing is the quality and depth has improved immensely in New Zealand since I first started paddling.’’
Ashton Reiser defended his open men’s K1 200m title, six months to the day after undergoing surgery on both forearms after being bedevilled by compartment syndrome issues.
The North Shore paddler struggled to find his rhythm during the rounds but rediscovered his A game in the final as a strong late surge from lane two edged him to victory by just 0.03 from Taris Harker (Karapiro).
‘‘I had the surgery after World U23s last year and it has been a hard road back,’’ the 21-year-old said.
‘‘I didn’t return to full training until December and it has been the toughest season I’ve ever had to get back to form.
‘‘Taris made a flying start but I knew the race was always going to be close, it always is.
‘‘It was such a relief to win. I felt so much pressure trying to defend the title and winning it this year feels so much better.’’
Reiser stopped the clock at 36.38 with Harker claiming silver and Ben Duffy (Arawa) bronze in 36.53.