Carrington the star as Kiwis grab four medals
New Zealand’s paddlers produced the country’s greatest medal haul from a canoe sprint world championship, with Lisa Carrington starring.
Carrington won four medals - two gold, a silver and a bronze - as the Kiwi team capped the world champs in the Czech Republic with bronze in the women’s K4 500 final.
An hour earlier, Carrington won individual gold in the K1 200 to maintain her stunning dominance in that event.
She then teamed up with Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie to finish a close third in the K4 500 final behind winners Hungary and silver medallists Germany. Hungary’s winning time was one minute 29.784 seconds, with Germany 0.3s back and NZ another 0.13s behind the runners-up.
New Zealand had won three world medals on three separate occasions; Paul MacDonald and Ian Ferguson picked up two golds and a silver in 1987, while Carrington and Teneale Hatton won two golds and a bronze in 2013 and two golds and a silver in 2014.
Carrington, a three-time Olympic medal-winner claimed gold in her specialist 200m event to go alongside the gold she and Ryan won the previous day in the K2 500, while she also captured silver in the K1 500.
The powerful Kiwi blasted away from the start and never looked like being headed, winning in 38.433 seconds from Denmark’s Emma Aastrand Jorgensen by .57 seconds, with Poland’s Marta Walczkiewicz third.
Carrington hasn’t been beaten over the shorter solo distance in seven years. The victory in Racice was her fifth consecutive K1 200 world championship title, to go with two Olympic golds in the event.
The K4 bronze was her 11th world champs medal in a stellar career, with seven gold, two silver and two bronze.
Canoe Racing New Zealand chief executive Mark Weatherall said Carrington’s 10-race effort over the championship would rank as one of New Zealand’s great sporting achievements and called her a ‘‘once in a lifetime’’ athlete.
He also paid tribute to retired K4 stalwart Jaimee Lovett, former national women’s coach Rene Olsen and current coach Gordon Walker for their efforts in helping launch a culture of excellence in the team boat ranks that continues to filter down through the sport.
‘‘There have definitely been some hurdles along the way and but to see those four black-clad paddlers on the podium at a world championship is immensely satisfying and a very proud moment,’’ Weatherall said.
‘‘Three years ago, we set a plan in motion to build a team boat capable of performing on the world stage, which would in turn expand our stable of paddlers, but only in our wildest dreams did we expect this kind of result so soon.
‘‘It’s a tribute to all the athletes involved, the coaches at both club and national level and the support from High Performance Sport New Zealand that our women’s programme is probably now up there with any other in the world.’’