Lisa Carrington crosses the line in the ICF World Champs K1 500 final (image: Planet Canoe YouTube)
Lisa Carrington (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou) has made it a two gold medal haul at the ICF canoe sprint world championships in Hungary. She won the K1 500 overnight, to go with her K1 200 gold on Saturday.
She won the final in dominant fashion, the 30-year-old from Ohope shooting out to an early lead and passing the finish line in 1:55.76 – more than 1.63 seconds clear of Belarus’s Volha Khudzenka. Two-time Olympic champion Danuta Kozak of Hungary was third.
It was the first time in four years that Carrington had won the K1 500 at the World Champs.
“The 500 is a really tough event, and the girls I compete against are just amazing, so you have to bring your best game to the world champs,” Carrington said.
“The 500 requires a bit more work and a bit more strategy, so for me it’s cool to be able to go out there and execute the race that I wanted to.
“This is just one race today, and in 12 months we have another one. It’s really wicked to know the hard work I’ve put in and the hard training and the difficult times do pay off.”
Carrington now has her sights set on a third gold medal, when she teams up with Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan in the K4 500 final.