Carrington hungry to pursue greatness
The sight of legendary Hungarian paddler Danuta Kozak powering away from her in the final of the K1 500m in Rio has only added fuel to the fire in Lisa Carrington’s belly.
So, far from being content after, historically, adding a gold and bronze medal in the Rio canoe sprint regatta to the sole gold she won in the K1 200m in London four years ago, Carrington has revealed a yearning to take her kayaking to an even higher level over the next Olympic cycle heading into Tokyo in 2020.
It’s a positive approach that sums up this 27-year-old Ohope-raised marvel perfectly. She is driven to be as good as she possibly can be, which the back half of her Rio campaign has shown still leaves her with upside to reach for.
Carrington had dominated the K1 200m event earlier, leaving her rivals in her wake over the second half of the medal race, much as Kozak had done in the final of the K1 500m at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon yesterday.
Carrington came home strongly from the back of the field at the halfway point to get up for the bronze medal, but she was still a good two lengths (or 1.878 seconds) behind Kozak who won her second gold of these Games and fourth overall after also grabbing a pair in London.
It made the diminutive paddler the first Kiwi female to claim two medals at the same Games and also put her in a select group alongside Barbara Kendall and Valerie Adams to have won three Olympic medals.
Given she was inspired to become an Olympian by watching Danyon Loader’s double gold medal in the pool in Atlanta in 1996, it’s apposite that she has gone on to emulate the Kiwi swimming legend as a multiple champion in her sport.
‘‘Danuta, she’s got two golds here. Man, what an amazing feeling she must have to do that,’’ Carrington told NZ Newswire, making it clear where her goals were now set. ‘‘I know how hard it is to do what I’ve done. I just have to get a whole lot faster.’’
Asked by Sky Sports what she would set her sights on next, Carrington indicated she had plenty of motivation to continue to excel in her sport heading towards Tokyo.
‘‘It’s just a continual growth in whatever it is,’’ she said. ‘‘There’s so much more room that I can move. That’s scary and exciting at the same time. I guess it’s just putting one foot in front of the other to try and find that growth.’’