Hawke's Bay's Aimee Fisher won her first New Zealand K1 200m kayaking title at Lake Karapiro today, dominating a field missing world and Olympic champion Lisa Carrington, and quickly setting her sights on doing the double.
Fisher, 22, stormed home in 38.15secs, more than a boat length clear of her Olympic K4 teammate Caitlin Ryan (North Shore), who crossed in 39.27. Another member of the Rio K4, Kayla Imrie, finished a solid third but was disqualified for a boat weight infraction, promoting North Shore's Briar McLeely into third.
The 22-year-old Fisher was thrilled to get the three-day championships off to a fast start.
"It's been a long time since I've won a national title - I think the last one was in 2013, so it's been a pretty dry spell," Fisher said. "It's good to come and have a good hit-out and my Poppa will be stoked when I bring home a gold medal for him!"
Her Poppa is Hastings 84-year-old Ian Fraser, who has assumed the role of medal custodian for his granddaughter. She's hoping for another one tomorrow, when the K1 500m titles are decided.
"For the 500 especially, I just want to be brave. Sometimes it can be hard to go 100 percent and you know it's going to hurt so the goal for tomorrow is to be aggressive off the line and hopefully the rest of it will take care of itself."