Dame Lisa Carrington has rounded out a memorable week at the canoe sprint world championships by clinching a third gold medal in Germany.
Dame Lisa blitzed the field on her way to defending her K1 200 crown, finishing more than a second ahead of nearest rival Yale Steinepreis of Australia.
The result marks her 15th world title, backing up her golden efforts in both the K4 500 and K1 500 -.the fourth time she has achieved the 200m/500m double.
"It's been an awesome week being out on the water and really cool to finish the weekend with the 200," said Carrington. "The K1 500 yesterday was awesome, and today was so good to get out there and go as hard as I can.
"It was fun."
In the K1 200 final, there was only ever one boat in the contest, as Carrington exploded off the line and never looked back.
Her early advantage only extended as the race progressed, with daylight between Steinepris in the closest boat and Poland’s Dominika Putto in third.
Carrington now has her sights set on Paris 2024, where she looks likely to add to her recordbreaking collection of five gold medals.
"We've still got one more year and hopefully can keep building on what we've done this week," she said. "Hopefully we keep progressing."
Canoe Racing NZ performance general manager Nathan Luce has acknowledged Carrington's feats, as he reflects on a stellar overall performance by his team at Druisberg.
"We can take Lisa for granted," said Luce. "What she did in individual results was amazing.
"We need to recognise that what she’s achieving is unheard of in any sport in any discipline.
"We are so proud of the team, all of their results and qualifying four spots for Paris next year. We knew we needed to do that [qualify a K4 boat] to get ahead with Paris prep and, with the women’s team, we've done that."
