Canoeing: New Zealand's paddlers bag three more gold medals at World Cup regatta

The New Zealand K4 Women's crew of Aimee Fisher, Caitlin Ryan, Kayla Imrie and Lisa Carrington. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand's paddlers bagged three gold medals tonight to give them an outstanding haul of four at the World Cup canoeing regatta in Portugal.

Three-time Olympic medallist Lisa Carrington had a hand in three of them within an hour and a half, as did fast-rising Aimee Fisher, the pair teaming up in the K2 events over both the 200m sprint distance and the classic 500m.

They then joined Kayla Imrie and Caitlin Ryan to win a thrilling K4 title.

Throw in Ryan's K1 500m victory 24 hours earlier and it added up to a significant weekend for New Zealand.

While Carrington and Fisher were comfortable winners in their two-seat disciplines, the K4 was a cracking race, going toe to toe against the Ukraine quartet.

They raced in lanes two and nine so could not have kept a close eye on each other but they left the rest of the field - including New Zealand's second K4 team - in their wake as they fled down the Montemor-o-Velho course.

New Zealand won, just, clocking 1min 32.105, with the Ukrainian four of Mariia Kichasova, Anastasiia Todorova, Anastasiya Horlova and Inna Hryshchun, recording 1:32.527. Hungary took third in 1:35.077.

The second New Zealand crew of Briar McLeely, Kim Thompson, Rebecca Cole and Britney Ford were sixth in 1:38.754.

Carrington and Fisher won the K2 200m crown in a slick 36.563s, heading home the host country's pair of Joana Vasconcelos and Francisca Laia by .869s. Carrington and Fisher had gone into the final as fastest qualifier out of the heats.

Ukraine took third with the second New Zealand combination, Imrie and McLeely, crossing fourth in 38.780s.

Soon after, Carrington and Fisher were out in front again, dominating the K2 500m final, winning by two lengths in 1:41.706.

The Portugese pair again took silver with Hungarians Noemi Lucz and Zsofia Szenasi third. The second New Zealand crew, Cole and Thompson finished seventh in 1:47.730.

Those titles followed Ryan's fine performance in winning the K1 500m title on Saturday night.

Ryan, a member of the K4 crew who finished fifth in last year's Rio Olympics, produced a strong performance to win in 1m 47.484s, leading from start to finish. Slovenian paddler Spela Janic took second in 1m 49.439s.

Ryan's time gave the world record a real shake. That mark is 1m 47.066s, set by Germany's Nicole Reinhardt in 2011.

It is the discipline in which three-time Olympic medallist Carrington won bronze in Rio.
The New Zealand squad, comprising eight women and no men -- a clear sign of where the strength in the sport lies in the country -- now head for Szeged, Hungary and another cup regatta next weekend.