Lisa Carrington's K1 absence has opened the door for young contenders at the New Zealand canoe sprint championships at Lake Karapiro that begin today.
After a brilliant 12 months - featuring Olympic gold and bronze medals and last week's supreme Halberg Awards title - Carrington will skip single-boat racing and concentrate solely on team boats for her Eastern Bay club at the three-day championships.
It means fresh winners for the women's K1 200m and 500m titles for the first time in nearly a decade, with Olympic K4 paddler Caitlin Ryan (North Shore) among those challenging over the longer distance.
Ryan's K4 teammates Aimee Fisher (Hawke's Bay) and Wellington's Kayla Imrie will also be hunting titles, with Fisher a warm favourite in the 200m after finishing second to Carrington last year and placing eighth at the German ICF world cup round in May.
Rising North Shore stars Rebecca Cole and Briar McLeely and Poverty Bay's Kim Thompson will be pushing to translate their under-23 prowess into open success, with all three joining Ryan, Imrie and Fisher in team boats during the upcoming world cup series in Europe.