Carrington breaks New Zealand's duck in women's K1 500m at ICF Canoe Sprint and Para-canoe World Championships

Lisa Carrington became the first New Zealander ever to win the women's K1 500m event at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Para-canoe World Championships ©Getty Images

Lisa Carrington struck gold in the women’s K1 500 metres event at the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Sprint and Para-canoe World Championships in Milan to become the first New Zealander ever to win the title.

Carrington, the K1 200m gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games, clocked a time of 1 min 49.398sec in the Italian city to finish ahead of Hungary’s Anna Karasz and China’s Yu Zhou in second and third respectively.

"It was a good race in a tough event and I’m really pleased to have a performance that I’m happy with, which represents how my year has panned out," said Carrington, who plans to compete in the 500m event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

In the other standout performance of the day, Denmark’s René Holten Poulsen won his first men’s K1 1,000m crown, beating reigning champion Josef Dostal of the Czech Republic by less than half a second with a time of 3:25.815.

"That was incredibly hard but I just focussed on my own race," said Poulsen, who adds the title to his K1 500m gold from a year ago in Moscow.

"I was hoping for this.

"I thought I was only half a metre ahead in the finish line but it was obviously more."

Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta completed the podium with a time of 3:26.535.

Denmark's René Holten Poulsen won his first men’s K1 1,000m title ©ICF

Meanwhile, Germany’s Sebastian Brendel resisted a strong challenge from Martin Fuksa of the Czech Republic to retain his men’s C1 1,000m title after a shoot for the line saw him finish just 0.017 ahead with Moldova’s Serghei Tarnovschi rounding off the podium.

In the men’s C1 200m final, Belarus’ Artsem Kozyr posted a time of 38.605 to ensure top honours, while China’s Qiang Li came second and Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos took the bronze medal position.

There was success for Hungary in the men’s K2 200m and women’s K2 500m finals, thanks to Sandor Totka and Peter Molnar in the former with a time of 30.935, and Gabriella Szabo and Danuta Kozak in the latter with a time of 1:39.865.

Germany did the K2 1,000m double as Sabrina Hering and Steffi Kriegerstein claimed the women’s crown with a time of 3:37.646 and Max Rendschmidt and Marcus Gross secured the men’s title with a time of 3:10.175.

Belarus’ Daryna Kastsiuchenka and Kamila Bobr won the women’s C2 500m final, clocking 2:00.675, while Russia’s Pavel Petrov and Mikhail Pavlov triumphed in the equivalent men’s final, crossing the line in 1:42.035.

Action in Milan will conclude following a second day of finals tomorrow.