New Zealand's Dame Lisa Carrington has begun the World Cup season from where she left off in Tokyo ©Getty Images

The second International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season in Poznań is set to be the last big test before the World Championships in Nova Scotia.

New Zealand superstar Dame Lisa Carrington opened her season at Račice in the Czech Republic with victory in the women’s K1 500 metre as she continues a career that has already brought five Olympic gold medals, three of them in Tokyo.

Carrington has also added the K1 200m to her programme in Poznań, an event in which she is unbeaten since 2011, and will again partner Alicia Hoskin in the K2 500m after they finished third last week.

Carrington is also expected to race in the K4 500m where the Polish quartet will be highly fancied after victory last week.

The crew includes Karolina Naja and Anna Pulawska who will also start favourites in the K2 500m, an event in which they won silver at Tokyo 2020.

China’s Olympic gold medallists Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya will be a big attraction in the women’s C2 500m but Cuba’s Yarisleidis Duboys and Katherin Segura have been training in nearby Bydgoszcz, after finishing second last weekend.

The men’s C2 500m also promises excitement as Italy’s world champions Nicolae Craciun and Daniele Santini bid to improve on third place last weekend.

China's Olympic champions Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya are set to race this weekend after starting their World Cup campaign with victory in Račice last week ©Getty Images
China's Olympic champions Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya are set to race this weekend after starting their World Cup campaign with victory in Račice last week ©Getty Images

Although Olympic bronze medallist Fernando Pimenta of Portugal insisted that he was still still short of his best form, he opened with a victory in the men’s K1 1,000m from Australia’s Thomas Green and Germany’s Jacob Schopf.

Czech Rio 2016 silver medalist Josef Dostál missed last week’s racing but is expected to return to the field this weekend.

Fellow Czech Martin Fuksa won C1 gold at both 500m and 1,000m in Račice, but Brazil’s Olympic gold medalist at the longer distance Isaquias dos Santos is expected to miss this weekend’s competition.

Many of Germany’s squad were still recovering from contracting COVID-19 during a recent training camp and are still trying to recover their fitness.

Men’s K4, 1,000 m specialist Jacob Schopf and Conrad-Robin Scheibner, C1 500m world champion last year, were among those who struggled last weekend but are expected to perform better this week.

There were emotional scenes last weekend when Ukraine’s Oleh Kukharyk and Ihor Trunov came across the line first in the men’s K2 500m, a new Olympic event for Paris 2024, but they will not be racing in Poland.

Competition in the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup begins tomorrow and continues through to Sunday (May 29).