Canoeing: Carrington edged out for gold

Ohope's world champion Lisa Carrington met her match at the second canoe sprint World Cup in Germany yesterday, being edged for gold in the K1 200m final.

After an epic battle in the semifinal between Carrington and Hungary's three-time Olympic champion Natasa Douchev-Janics, the A final was always going to be the race to watch - and the pair didn't fail to provide the promised excitement.

Carrington burst out of the blocks when the gun sounded, and the event quickly turned into a two-horse race, with the two powering through to the front of the field.

In a photo finish, Douchev-Janics just managed to beat Carrington to the top spot by 0.096 seconds, with Australian Alana Nichols a second behind for third.

Carrington and coach Gordon Walker were pleased with the process but had mixed emotions about the result.

"Of course, she is a little disappointed to miss the gold, especially when it's such a small margin, but she's absolutely rapt with the performance," Walker said.

Another paddler pleased with her progress was Teneale Hatton, who performed consistently throughout the world cups over the last two weekends.

Her seventh placing in the C final of the K1 200m - a non-specialist event for her - was more about increasing her racing experience, with her focus being on the K1 500m.

After finishing sixth in the B final of that discipline on Saturday night to back up a fourth in the B final last weekend in Poland, it's now a waiting game to see if Hatton has done enough on the water to be added to the Games team by the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Two hours after the battle in the K1 200m, Carrington climbed into the K2 with Erin Taylor to contest the B final of the women's K2 500m. From the halfway mark, the pair moved to the front of the race and controlled it for the remainder to win by a full second.

With the world cups finished, the team are now packing up and moving into the next stage of the Olympic campaign. That involves the team breaking into three groups to target their specific areas at training camps around Europe, before coming together again at the London Olympics.APNZ