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Canoe Racing New Zealand (CRNZ) are in line to send its biggest-ever Olympic team to Paris.

After successfully navigating the Oceania qualifying regatta in Sydney over the weekend, CRNZ could have as many as 10 athletes at the 2024 Games.

It’s an exciting prospect. As well as the ‘stop the nation’ scenario of Dame Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher facing off in the K1 500 – which would be massive, given their pedigree – there will be two women’s K2 crews, along with the K4 quartet, who spectacularly took world championship gold last year.

Besides the six women – which is the maximum allowed for any nation – there may be up to four men. Along with the K2, that would allow a male K4 crew, for the first time since 1992 in Barcelona, which was the final chapter of the glorious Ian Ferguson-Paul MacDonald era.

The previous highest kayaking contingent at a single Games was seven (1988 and 1992), with six athletes in Rio and Tokyo.

“We have never before had men’s and women’s K4s racing at the same time at the Games, so if we can pull that off we would be really excited,” CRNZ high-performance boss Nathan Luce told the Herald.

Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher. Photo / Photosport

Six female athletes would continue the remarkable evolution on that side of the sport, driven by Carrington. CRNZ didn’t send their first female Olympian until 2008 (Erin Taylor) but they have been the dominant gender since.

The Sydney results need to be ratified by the International Canoe Federation, then selection has to be approved by the New Zealand Olympic Committee. In theory, New Zealand qualified three boats and six athlete quota in Sydney. Aimee Fisher and Danielle McKenzie ensured a second women’s K2 500m entry, while 2020 Olympians Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie punched the ticket for a men’s K2 boat.

The third was a little more opaque, as James Munro and Kacey Ngataki finished first in the two-person canoe (C 2 500m). Along with that boat, it potentially means four male athletes in the French capital, opening up other selection options.

Luce emphasised that the personnel filling those athlete spots won’t be confirmed until the first week of March, with CRNZ to hold trials across four classes (women’s K2 500m, K4 500m; men’s K2 500m, K4 500m). Competition is particularly deep among the males. Brown and Imrie finished an impressive fifth in Tokyo but aren’t assured of their spots, with at least eight men expected to contend for seats on the two boats.

“With the athletes that we have [we are] pretty confident we can make a good impression [in both events],” said Luce. “They have made a big jump in the last few years, just keep on getting better and better.”

But the headline-grabbing event will undoubtedly be the women’s K1 500, with the final scheduled for the last Saturday of the Games. Luce didn’t want to get ahead of things but admitted the idea of Carrington and Fisher in the same event would capture the imagination, especially considering Carrington is a five-time Olympic champion and Fisher will considered be a podium contender.

“It is a great opportunity for New Zealand to have two of the best paddlers in the world in the field,” said Luce. “To be able to have that opportunity is amazing for us because in the past Olympic Games, prior to Tokyo, we could only have one entrant [per event]. Now we can have two so it [would be] exciting to see both of them line up against the rest of the world.”

Potential CRNZ team at the Paris Olympics

Women

K1 500m x two boats

K2 500m x two boats

K4 500m

Men

K2 500m

K4 500m

C2 500m

Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.