23 May 2015

Carrington eases into German final

5:39 pm on 23 May 2015

Lisa Carrington's World Cup kayaking form has continued, while two of her New Zealand team-mates will join her in A finals on Saturday night at the German round of the series.

Competition increased significantly in the second of the World Cups in Duisburg, with double the nations and more than triple the number of athletes from last week's opening regatta in Portugal.

Lisa Carrington winning the K1 200 in Portugal, 2015

Lisa Carrington winning the K1 200 in Portugal, 2015 Photo: PHOTOSPORT

It didn't faze Carrington, however, with the 25-year-old winning her K1 500m heat and semi-final as she qualified for Saturday night's final.

Carrington isn't racing the K1 200 metres this weekend - the event in which she's the defending world and Olympic champion - electing instead to focus on the longer distance.

She cruised through her heat nearly three seconds clear of second-placed Anja Osterman (Slovenia) and then went faster in her semi-final to clock the second best time.

Meanwhile, the K2 200 metres crew of Kayla Imrie and Aimee Fisher qualified directly for the A final, winning their heat.

They pipped the Kazakhstan crew of Natalya Sergeyeva and Irina Podoinikova by 0.399 seconds, with Great Britain third.

Imrie and Fisher are part of New Zealand's new K4 500 crew, which captured gold in Portugal last week.

The other two paddlers in that crew, Caitlin Ryan and Jaimee Lovett, were also in action, finishing fourth in their K2 500 semi-final to make the B final.

Also making the B final was K1 1000 paddler Marty McDowell, who finished fifth in a fast semifinal but clocked a good time to sneak through.

K1 200m paddler Scott Bicknell wasn't so fortunate, finishing sixth in his heat to miss the semi-finals.