Kayaking: Lisa Carrington into K1 500m final in Italy

Lisa Carrington. Photo / Getty Images

Lisa Carrington has cruised into the final of the K1 500m at the canoe racing world championships in Milan overnight, although a trio of rivals will be waiting eagerly for her once she gets there.

On a brutal day for the New Zealand team, Carrington was again a shining light, winning her heat in 1min 54.291secs, then going nearly 5secs faster to win her semifinal in 1:49.407.

The 26-year-old wasn't pushed in her semi, with Volha Khudzenka (Belarus) more than a second back, while three other paddlers recording faster times in the other semifinals.

Hungarian Anna Kárász was the quickest qualifier for Saturday's final with a 1:48.113 effort, as Great Britain's Rachel Cawthorn (1:48.750) and China's Yu Zhou (1:48.813) also went quicker than the Kiwi.

Carrington will line up in her K1 200m heats tonight as she chases an historic world championship double.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand males found the going much tougher on the second day of the five-day championship, with Marty McDowell missing out on the K1 1000m semifinals and Zac Franich and Darryl Fitzgerald finishing sixth in their K2 1000m semifinal.

That's put them in Saturday's C final, with a chance to break into the top-20 in the world. The top 12 K2 crews were all within 3secs of each other, with Franich and Fitzgerald less than 10secs back after a 3:18.344 semifinal effort, which was a 7sec improvement on their heat time.

McDowell had the unluckiest race of the day, drawing the fastest heat of the morning and finishing sixth to miss the semifinals by one spot. His 3:40.005 time would've been comfortably enough to progress in four of the other six heats.

Tonight's racing sees the New Zealand women's K4 in action, with Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie pleased with how they're progressing following six weeks of intensive overseas training after leaving these shores.