Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher embrace after the K1 500 final at Lake Karapiro on Saturday. Photo / Kelly Hodel, Stuff
Five-time Olympic champion Dame Lisa Carrington (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou) has sealed her place as New Zealand's sole women’s K1 500 representative at the canoe sprint world championships in Germany in August.
After winning the first race of a best-of-three series against fellow Kiwi and 2021 K1 500 world champion Aimee Fisher, 28, at Lake Karapiro on Friday, Dame Lisa, 33, closed out the qualifying contest with a follow-up win on Saturday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead and book her spot at Duisburg.
“There’s a deep respect for each other, she’s phenomenal, she’s a phenomenal athlete and a person,” an emotional Fisher told 1 News after Saturday's race.
Last year, Fisher lead a similar race-off 1-0, before Dame Lisa fought back to win the next two races to claim New Zealand's only world champs spot in the women’s K1 500.
"Aimee's a great paddler. The race means so much to us individually," Dame Lisa told Te Ao Toa at the time.
