This article was first published by RNZ.
The GOAT has bagged another gold.
Dame Lisa Carrington has added an eighth medal to her extensive collection of Olympic bling after cruising to victory in the women’s K2 500m with Alicia Hoskin.
The Kiwi crew romped home in one minute and 37 seconds, well ahead of the pack to defend their title from Tokyo.
The red-hot favourites for the final rocketed out to first and held it comfortably over Germany in second.
No other crew could touch the kayak queen, and she and Hoskins hit another gear after the midway mark to obliterate the field by a boat length.
In a fierce fight for second, Hungary won silver with Germany taking bronze.
It marks Carrington’s seventh Olympic gold medal, and eighth overall.
Hoskin told Sky Sport she was just “loving the paddling”.
“I love being out there with these girls, I love putting a race together that we are proud of, and just showing our preparation, so just really proud and loving it.”
Carrington said going back-to-back to defend her Tokyo title was not something she thought about until recently.
“It’s amazing, I can’t believe we managed to win today, to do it again here, we didn’t expect to do it, but we obviously trained as hard as we could so we were in a position to be able to win today.”
Hoskin said she had no idea how far ahead they were during the race.
“I was just so locked in on Lise, we were just paddling our own race out there. I didn’t actually realise where the other girls were.
“We knew it was an extremely high-quality field, we have a lot of respect for the girls we were racing today, so we took it very seriously, stuck to our game plan, and yeah, just had a really good time.”
Carrington said her seventh gold was equally as special as the first.
“Every time it’s different, It’s just surreal. I just can’t believe I even have this opportunity to be able to line up and have a another shot at the title.
“We have just been focussing on how much we love the paddling, doing the job, and enjoying it while we are doing it. It’s a real privilege to do it with her.”