New Zealand are sending eight women paddlers to World Cup regattas this year, in a clear sign that's where the overwhelming strength of the sport lies in this country.
Spearheaded by three-time Olympic medallist Lisa Carrington, and the K4 who reached the Rio Olympic final last year, the women will race in two K4 boats but also split into single and two-seaters at times.
Carrington is skipping her K1 200m discipline, in which she's won the last two Olympic titles and will be in a K4, effectively replacing the retired Jaimee Lovett from the Rio quartet, and will race with Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie. She will return to the K1 500m at the second World Cup in Szeged, Hungary in late May.
Ryan will race the K1 500m in Portugal and Fisher the K1 200m in Hungary, having made a World Cup final in that discipline in Germany last year. All eyes are focussed on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and this is the first chance for paddlers to position themselves for that.
"I have to do it differently," Carrington said of the fresh challenge. "The same thing that motivated me for Rio is not the same thing that will motivate me for Tokyo and I learned that doing the double (in Rio where she won gold in the K1 200m and bronze in the 500m single) is incredibly hard."
