Turbo-charged kayaker Lisa Carrington has a shot at Olympic immortality today after qualifying for the final of the K1 500m.
With original superlatives in increasingly short supply, the GOAT in the boat won her semifinal convincingly to give her a shot at her third gold medal of these Olympics.
Carrington jumped out hard and early, seemingly having her race locked up by the halfway mark, where she led Australia's Alyce Wood by 1.27s. She maintained that gap to win in 1m 51.680s, the fastest time of the four semifinals.
If Carrington finishes in the top three this afternoon, she will take her total Olympic medal haul to six, one more than fellow kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, and equestrian Mark Todd. Her current total of four gold medals puts her equal with Ferguson.
Given the fact she is world champion in the discipline, it would take a major upset, or a sudden onset of fatigue given her taxing programme, for her to miss out.
Carrington was not the only New Zealander bidding for the final.
Caitlin Regal left everything on the course in her bid to make the A final but just tied up in the final 100m to finish third, qualifying her for the B final.
Caitlin Regal. Photo / Getty
With a gold medal in her locker in the K2 500m and the K4 to come, it has been an outstanding regatta for the Aucklander but with 250m to go it looked like it was going to be even better.
Fast out of the blocks, as seems to be the New Zealand way, she was behind only hot favourite Tamara Csipes (Hungary) at the halfway mark and well ahead of Belgium's Hermiem Peters.
As the red lane markers signifying 100m to go came into view Regal started to tie up and Peters overtook her with about 50m to go. To Regal's credit she hung in there and finished just .666s out of second.
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Carrington, 32, will line up in the final against Csipes, Peters, Wood, Danuta Kozak (Hungary), Teresa Portela (Portugal), Linnea Stensils (Sweden) and Emma Jorgensen (Denmark).
Hungary's Csipes is potentially the biggest impediment to the top step. Her semifinal time of 1m 51.698s was just .018 outside Carrington's time.
Kiwi duo Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie will also be racing for a medal thanks to a strong race in the K2 1000m semifinal.
Brown and Imrie finished second in the first semi in a time of 3:17.684, .607 behind the dominant Australian pair of Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen.
Their final is at 3.55pm this afternoon. Carrington goes for gold at 3.29pm.
