Dame Lisa Carrington has drawn first blood in her friendly but fierce rivalry with Aimee Fisher, with a win in the heats of the K1 500m at this year's national championships.
Carrington won the heat on Lake Karapiro this afternoon with a time of 1.49:10 - over two seconds ahead of Fisher.
It was the first showdown of the Olympic champion and former world champion this year, with only one spot available at the upcoming World Championships in Germany.
The pair still have two more races to determine who that representative will be, but today's result effectively gives Carrington a 1-0 lead in their pseudo best-of-three series.
Carrington used her renowned strong start to jump out to an impressive lead in the opening moments of the race before Fisher - known for her strong finishes - looked to claw her back.
However, Carrington held her ground and even extended her lead towards the finish line to finish with a superb time.
For comparison, Carrington was 2.11 seconds faster than when she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the same event two years ago.
Fisher said Carrington was impressive today.
"I felt really strong in the first 300 [metres]," Fisher said. "She definitely out-enduranced me in the last part of the race... so it'll be good to have another little re-match tomorrow."
Tomorrow's race is the final with the winner being crowned the national champion and should Fisher win it, a final head-to-head decider will be raced on Monday at Lake Karapiro to finalise who will head to the world championships.
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