Lisa Carrington Canoe Sprint World Champion

CANOE RACING NEW ZEALAND INC.

Lisa Carrington Canoe Sprint World Champion

21 August 2011

Lisa Carrington has overnight showed her true class by becoming the World Champion in the K1 200m race at the 2011 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, the first New Zealand woman to achieve this accolade.

Lisa lined up against 54 other nations to face off for direct qualification for the Olympics. The K1 200m is new to the Olympic programme 2012. Yesterday saw her smash her heat and semis in very fast times and today she showed just how good she is winning in a time of 39:998 seconds. Second in a time of 40.472 was Marta Walczykiewicz the 2009 World Championship silver medallist, and 3rd in a time of 40.67 was Inna Osypenko-Radonsk the 2010 World Champion silver medallist, both in the same event.

Lisa was coached by Gordon Walker who said “ Lisa’s hard work and dedication over a long period of time has paid off today. Lisa has been fantastic to coach, is a great listener and has a lot of belief in herself.” Lisa who is only 22 and hails from Whakatane started kayaking in 2006 and first competed internationally at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympics and 2007 Canoe Sprint World Championships. Lisa joined the open team in 2009 and since then has been competing annually internationally at World Cups and World Championships. Lisa has focused on 200m this year coming 2nd at Grand Prix 2 in January this year in Sydney.

Still a new face to this event she stormed the field in May this year at the 2011 ICF World Cup 3 in Duisberg Germany to take gold. Of her win Lisa says “it’s all a bit surreal but I’m glad to win and am looking forward to competing at the Olympics.” The last time the New Zealand anthem rang out at the medal ceremony in the World Champs was for Ben Fouhy becoming World Champion in the K1 1000m in 2003.
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