"I was really happy with how the race went, just focusing on the performance rather than the result, but to come away with a silver medal was an awesome way to start Sunday."
She told her father the water was rough and difficult for the heats and semifinals which suited her. For the final the water was calm and there was a tail wind which suited the slighter competitors more but Fisher didn't want to use this as an excuse.
While their haul of golds was halved from the first round in Portugal, two instead of four, the satisfaction was doubled as the Kiwis successfully handled a huge jump in competition. Hungary's world and Olympic champion K4 500m crew weren't in Portugal and on their home waters they were beaten by 0.7s by Hawke's Bay Kayaking Club member Fisher and co who posted a time of 1m 30.754s.
"Every time we jump into that boat, I think we learn some more and we progress further," Imrie said.
"Last week as a crew was our first race together, and we just wanted to progress from that."
Fisher pointed out the friendships the Kiwis are developing with the likes of Lucz and Denmark's Emma Jorgensen are just as satisfying to her as the quality of racing.
"While we are fierce rivals on the water we are friends off it. We're looking forward to this for the next 10 years at least.
"Emma is the same age as me and has been the cream of our crop for a while. She won silver in the K1 500 at the Rio Olympics," Fisher explained.
The Kiwis' Denmark-raised coach, Rene Olsen, used to coach Jorgensen and he introduced the Kiwis to her. The New Zealand team arrive home tonight and after a few days' break will start training for the under-23 world championships in Romania in July and the senior world championships in the Czech Republic in August.
Fisher will tackle the K1 200m and 500m events in Romania and has yet to be told what crews she will be in at the senior worlds. It will be a surprise if the K4 500m crew isn't one of them.
A Karamu High School product, Fisher will visit the school and some others during a visit back to the Bay from tomorrow until Sunday.
Multiple world and Olympic champion Carrington and Ryan won the Kiwis' other gold in Hungary when they won the K2 500m final. They were more than two seconds clear of Russians Elena Aniushina and Kira Stepanova.
Carrington, who is focusing more on team boats this season, was pipped by Aniushina by 0.085s in the K1 500m final.
There were other notable performances from the rest of the eight-strong Kiwi team, with Imrie combining with Briar McLeely to finish fifth in the K2 200m final and under-23 paddlers McLeely, Kim Thompson, Britney Ford and Rebecca Cole finishing fifth in the B final of the K4 500m.
Thompson and Cole also finished eighth in the K2 500m B final. Cole was delighted by how much her young crew had absorbed in their first World Cup campaign.
"Seeing the level we need to work towards to be up there with the world's best was really cool and actually realising that level was being set by my teammates was even cooler," Cole said.
"It's been a really good opportunity to see how the open team works while they're on tour. I particularly like how, as a team, we can be professionals while still constantly sounding like a group of friends on a girls' tour around Europe!"
