22 Aug 2015

Carrington on course for the double

9:24 am on 22 August 2015

The New Zealand canoe sprint champion Lisa Carrington remains on track for an historic double, after breezing through her K1 200m heat at the world championship in Milan.

Lisa Carrington wins 2014 K1 200 world title.

Lisa Carrington wins 2014 K1 200 world title. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The defending world and Olympic champion recorded the fastest time of the 49 entrants with a 40.330sec effort.

Having qualified for the K1 500m final as well, her less favoured event, she remains on course for the double.

The New Zealand's women's K4 canoe racing team made a promising start to their world championship campaign, finishing second in their heat and easily qualifying for today's semifinal.

Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie led for most of the 500m distance, with direct qualification for the A final at stake, before the Polish crew came through to snatch the win.

New Zealand finished with the eighth-fastest time overall.

They'll need a top-10 ranking to qualify a boat for next year's Olympics and Ryan believes they are on track.

"We were feeling really strong before racing and we executed our individual and team race plans as they were set. We've got a good sense of confidence and we feel strong so I think we've got the mental edge and it's all going really well," Ryan said.

Today's racing sees Zac Franich and Darryl Fitzgerald race their K2 1000m C final, followed by Carrington's K1 500m A final, her K1 200m semifinal and the K4 women's semifinal.