Carrington, the K1 200m Olympic champion at London 2012 and Rio 2016, won the same event at the ICF Oceania Canoe Sprint Championships on Lake Karapiro.

She finished ahead of her opponents in 40.50sec, with her compatriots Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan coming second and third in 42:00 and 42.10 respectively. 

With the competition doubling up as New Zealand's National Championships, today's victory was Carrington's 10th national K1 200m title.

"The final was tough," she said.

"It was great to see so many New Zealand paddlers make the final because we had some very strong overseas athletes.

"I have been racing this event for a number of years now and I know what is required to perform well. 

"I’m lucky that I have a great training group and a really good coach to help me out."

Carrington is due to appear in the K1 500m final tomorrow after topping qualifying today.

She also led qualifying for the K2 500m alongside her teammate Ella Beere. 

New Zealand's Quaid Thompson took the gold medal in the men's K1 1000m, recording the winning time of 3min 34.42sec.

In second and third were his compatriots Kurtis Imrie and Max Brown, who finished in 3:36.81 and 3:37.79 respectively.

"It was pretty good, I didn’t feel the greatest in the build-up, but I backed myself and I felt much better today," Thompson said.

Imrie and Brown then went on to win the K2 1000m title in 3:18.71, five seconds faster than second place Fred Teear and Alex Fort, also from New Zealand.

Another New Zealand pair, Steven Ferguson and Tom Ashley, were third in 3:24.89.

The action is scheduled to conclude tomorrow with the final of the women's K1 and K2 500m, as well as the men's K1 500m.