Suppliers to supermarkets have pushed up prices on thousands of products and worries after a deadly weekend on the water. Video / NZ Herald
World champion canoeist Aimee Fisher has confirmed she will make one more bid for Olympic Games gold in Los Angeles in 2028, and she will base herself back in Hawke’s Bay to train for it.
The confirmation from Fisher, after the devastation of coming fourth as Dame Lisa Carrington took gold in the K1 500 in Paris, came in an Instagram post on Sunday where she said: “One last ride. This will be my final Olympic cycle and this time, I will do it with the village that raised me; I’ve moved back to Hawke’s Bay, where it all began.”
Aimee Fisher posted this picture to Instagram on December 15, announcing her final Olympic Games cycle in the kayak.
Fisher was also fifth with Lucy Matehaere in the K2 500, in what was her second Olympics, having raced for fifth in the K4 500 at 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Former Karamu High School pupil and three-time winner of the Hawke's Bay Supreme Sports Award, Aimee Fisher, at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Hungary in May. Photo / Getty Images
Fisher controversially withdrew from the Tokyo Olympic programme, but rejoined the New Zealand fray in 2023 and bounced back with a bang to go to Paris, challenging Carrington for favouritism to win the K1 500 gold.
The eventual fourth placing was a disappointment, but Fisher had learned how to handle it and was soon back training on Lake Pupuke on Auckland’s North Shore.
“I wasn’t expecting to get back on the water so early,” she said in one interview. “But I just felt like I needed to go out and be with people on the water, exercise and get some endorphins, and just have a little bit of routine. Now I’m paddling because I’m enjoying it.”
One of her first appearances in Hawke’s Bay Today was in the school’s prize list in 2009, as a 13-year-old Sportsperson of the Year, with a string of credentials: “Karamu High School Cup for Y9 girl athletics champion, Karamu High School Cup for best girl first year badminton player, distinction for surf lifesaving, honours medal for kayaking, member of junior girls’ canoe polo team placed second at Nationals, Karamu High School Cup for the Sportsperson of the Year.”
Four months later she was well on her way, in a Karamu team who won a revered canoe polo national title, in Rotorua. In 2011, again at Rotorua, she won the Under-17 girls K1 200m and won four gold medals in team boats, along with finishing second in the K1 500m at the Oceania and New Zealand Canoe Sprint Championships.
Her successes in later years led to her being named the Supreme Award winner at the Hawke’s Bay Sports and Recreation Awards, in 2016, 2018 and 2020, the first female to win the title three times since it was established as the Sportsman of the Year in 1966.
At the time of the Hungary success, she told International Canoe Federation media she enjoyed the match-ups against Carrington, but knew what was coming in Paris.
“We have raced so many times now that it comes down to centimetres so you have to just treat every stroke with respect because you know she is going to be right there,” she said. “When the Olympics come around it will be winner takes all. From now, I need to reset as I have a lot of work to do and I am going to be working hard every single day.”
The new campaign is highlighted in her latest post: “On water 6.30am Monday-Friday, 7am Saturday. All are welcome.”
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
