New Zealand's Lisa Carrington remains on track for a double at the canoe racing world championships in Milan.
Carrington not only won her first K1 500 metres world title, she also qualified fastest for tonight's K1 200 final.
Lisa Carrington poses with her gold with silver medallist Anna Kárász of Hungary (L) and bronze medallist Yu Zhou of China (R) Photo: Photosport
She swept to victory in the longer distance, putting daylight in between her black boat and her rivals on a choppy course.
The 26-year-old pulled away over the last 100 metres to win in 1:49.398, 1.727 seconds clear of rising Hungarian Anna Kárász, with Yu Zhou of China a surprise third.
"It was a tough race and I had to be really prepared to give it everything and do what I could because the competition was so strong," Carrington said. "I couldn't leave anything up to chance. I'm just really pleased to get the K1 500m done and now I can refocus on the 200."
Lisa Carrington remains on track for a double at the canoe racing world championships. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
A few hours later, the national women's K4 500 crew qualified for their 'A' final with third place in their semi, and in doing so, they also qualified a boat for next year's Olympics.
Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie led for much of the race but their top-10 ranking was still cause to celebrate - especially booking their spot at the Rio Games.
Fisher said going to Rio "is a bit of a dream come true."
"It's been a pretty long year and there's been a lot of suffering together. It's been a year of hurting but it's all really paying off now."
Great Britain and Germany overhauled them in the last 50 metres, clocking a minute 33.635 seconds and 1:33.706 respectively, but the New Zealand crew - who have only been together for around nine months - were only 0.308 seconds behind.
