New Zealand kayakers on the top two steps of the podium rounded off the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged on Sunday night NZT, after a truly phenomenal race saw both Aimee Fisher and Dame Lisa Carrington go under the world best time in the Womens K1 500m final and win World Cup medals.
These two women have had some stunning races in the past and this was no exception, with Aimee Fisher snatching the dramatic win over the 15-time world champion in a time of 1 minute 46.19 seconds, just 0.33 seconds ahead of Carrington.
The world best time previously stood at 1:46.465, set by Volha Khudzenka of Belarus.
Defending Olympic Champion Carrington made her trademark firecracker start in the race and was leading by more than a boat length at the midway mark. But Fisher stormed home in the final 250m, catching and passing Carrington just before the finish line to claim an impressive victory.
The smile of Fisher’s face in her post-race interviews said it all. “I didn’t panic, I stayed calm. I could hear everyone cheering us on, I could hear my name being called, I felt like I could hear everyone back home, and it was like there was this love pulling me to the finish line.”
With their other rivals more than two boat lengths behind, the race in Hungary may have been a preview to this year’s Olympic final, with Carrington and Fisher on the New Zealand Olympic team and both expected to race in the K1 500m event in Paris.
Those two world cup medals bookended what had already been a successful event for the NZ Canoe Sprint team at the 2024 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup and Paracanoe World Championships.
Peter Cowan took home the silver medal in the VL3 200M world championship event, his first world championship medal, just .071 behind Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov. Australian’s Curtis McGrath, VL3 200m Olympic Champion in Tokyo was in 3rd.
With that result Peter qualified a highly sought-after quota spot for New Zealand at the upcoming Paralympics in Paris. The Paralympic Paracanoe team will be announced in June.
K2 duo Lisa Carrington and Alicia Hoskin won gold in their WK2 500m Final ahead of Denmark’s Emma Jorgensen and Fredrikke Matthiesen. This result will give the K2 pair big confidence less than 3 months out from the Olympic Games.
Full NZ results:
Gold – Aimee Fisher, WK1 500m
Gold- Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, WK2 500m
Silver – Lisa Carrington, WK1 500m
Silver – Peter Cowan- VL3 200m (World Championship)
4th – Lisa Carrington, Tara Vaughan, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett – K4 Women 500m
8th – Scott Martlew, KL2 200m (World Championship)
11th – Aimee Fisher, Lucy Matehaere, K2 Women 500m
15th – Corbin Hart, KL3 Men 200m
23rd – Zach Ferkins, K1 Men 500m
6th Semifinal 1 – Max Brown, Grant Clancy, Kurtis Imrie, Hamish Legarth, K4 Men 500m
9th Semifinal 1 – Zach Ferkins, K1 Men 200m
9th Heat III – Grant Clancy, Kurtis Imrie, K2 Men 500m
9th Heat IV – Max Brown, Hamish Legarth, K2 Men 500m
