Ohope's Lisa Carrington has embraced the lift in competition by winning her third world cup kayaking gold medal in two weeks in Germany.
Competition increased significantly in the second world cup of the year at the weekend, with double the nations and more than triple the number of athletes from last week's opening regatta in Portugal.
The 25-year-old showed her winning habit is going to be hard to shake, fighting off Poland's Ewelina Wojnarowska to claim the K1 500m title in 1min 50.199secs at the Duisburg venue on Saturday night.
Carrington led by 0.35 seconds at the halfway stage but had to overcome a determined finish by her Polish rival to win, with Volha Khudzenka (Belarus) third.
"I'm really happy with the race itself because I could really work hard - the calibre this weekend was pretty high and the racing was strong so I really had to push it," Carrington said. "It's always nice to get the most out of myself."