Carrington blasts away all rivals

Women's 200m world canoe sprint champion Lisa Carrington has made a clean sweep of this year's nationals.

Competing at this year's Canoe Sprint Championships on Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake), the 22-year-old blasted her rivals away to claim three national titles over the last three days.

In the open women's 500m final on Saturday, Carrington cleared away to a three-second lead on her nearest rival and K2 partner, Erin Taylor.

"I'm really stoked about it," the Ohope paddler said. "I had a race strategy and I executed it the way I wanted to, so it was good."

Carrington blasted out of the blocks and although Taylor and North Shore's Rachel Dodwell tried to stay with the champion she continued to pick up the pace, wearing her opponents down and eventually coming home in a time of 1m 51.68s ahead of Taylor's 1m 54.53s and Dodwell's 1m 54.93s.

She backed it up later on that day, winning the open women's K2 500m final with Taylor in a time of 1m 49.59s in front of Rachel Dodwell and Jamie Lovett 1m 51.46s and Marianne Archer and Teneal Archer 1m 54.17s.

Yesterday Carrington repeated her domination in her favoured distance, the K1 200m final. "It comes to me quite naturally ... because it is just all out and let it rip."

Former world champ Ben Fouhy was prominent, on Friday he won the open men's 1000m final - nearly 4s ahead of his nearest rival Steven Ferguson.

He backed it up on Saturday, with his North Shore paddling partner Fred Teear to take out a photo-finish in the open men's 1000m final over Steven Fergusson and Darryl Fitzgerald. The pair won in a time of 3m 15.44s just 0.18s ahead of Fergusson and Fitzgerald.

Fouhy followed this by adding the open men's 500m title in a time of 1m 43.93s over Liam O'Laughlin and Darryl Fitzgerald.

The 32-year-old said he was happy with his form especially with the Oceania champs only two weeks away.

"Friday's win was a really good win for me. I think it's the most I've ever won a New Zealand title by, so I can take some encouragement from that," Fouhy said.

Yesterday, it was Ferguson's turn to shine, winning the men's K1 200m final and the men's K2 200m final with paddling partner Fitzgerald. Ferguson was explosive out of the start in the K1 final eventually winning by 0.14s over Scott Bicknell. Fouhy finished fourth in 36.54s.

In the men's K2 500m final on Saturday, Ferguson and Fitzgerald won by a photo-finish to Troy Burbidge and Liam O'Loughlin.

Results on A11.