Dame Lisa Carrington has proven she is still the best individual paddler in the country and will represent New Zealand in the K1 500 at the World Championships in August.
Carrington won another thrilling race against Aimee Fisher in the decider of their best-of-three series on Lake Karapiro on Thursday.
The pair have been battling for the lone New Zealand spot in the event at this year’s Worlds in Canada.
Carrington, in her black top and boat, was quick out of the blocks at the start of the race, quickly surging to a head start at the 100m mark.
Carrington proved she is still the best and will represent NZ in the K1 500 at the World Champs. (Source: 1News)
Fisher made a charge on the gold medallist soon after though, making up ground but Carrington kept her lead for the entirety of the race to win by about half a boat length in front of a crowd of a couple of hundred people.
The pair hugging once back on the dias, but there was a clear divide to feelings - Carrington was happy and relieved, while Fisher was visibly overcome, hugging her support crew after an intense three-race battle.
It follows a gripping series to separate the pair. Fisher won race one – the national championship final – by just .08 of a second before Carrington hit back to take their second event by another small margin, this time .11 of a second.
All races have followed a similar script with Carrington flying out of the start and Fisher left to chase with her trademark flying finish.
Fisher, the current world champion and former under-23 world champion, has been out of the high-performance environment and pulled out of Tokyo Olympic selection contention after a stand-off with Canoe Racing New Zealand over athlete welfare.
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