"It was a bit last minute, it’s all happened really quickly."
That about sums it up for Aimee Fisher and Danielle McKenzie, tasked with trying to qualify New Zealand a spot in the K2 500 at next year’s Olympics.
It's been just five weeks since they were put in a boat together in training in Europe to competing at this weekend’s Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg, Germany.
"We haven't had a lot of time in the boat but it's amazing, every session is going from strength-to-strength-to-strength and it's clicking really well," Fisher told 1News on a call alongside McKenzie.
"We've been able to put together some good sessions, a good time-trial and things so it's exciting going into racing and seeing if we can put all those different puzzle pieces together and take on the rest of the world."
The move’s been taken by Canoe Racing New Zealand to try to qualify the maximum quota of six athletes for the Paris Games.
With Dame Lisa Carrington focusing heavily on the K4, alongside Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan, as well as the K1 500, CRNZ’s decided to pull her from the K2 500 for these World Championships – she can still compete in the K2 500 at the Olympics, if New Zealand qualifies a spot.
So with Fisher, who lost out agonisingly to Carrington for the K1 500 spot in Duisburg, waiting in the wings training with the squad as a reserve, the national organisation looked at its options. It’s there they came up with the idea of McKenzie – an ocean surf-ski icon and 2019 world champion.
But here’s the thing - she’s only been in the flat-water canoe sprint kayak since April, after which she finished fourth in the K1 at the Nationals on Lake Karapiro.
“I have been living on the Gold Coast [but] I did actually move back to Auckland for about five weeks [and] trained with the New Zealand women's squad,” McKenzie explained.
“It was in that time that, initially they had told me that I was possibly going to go to World Champs and race a non-Olympic event which would be either the thousand or 5K.
"I'm honestly just super pumped, I jumped at it. I was like, ‘take me, take me to Europe, I just want to be part of the team,’ and within a week they turned around and said, ‘how would you want to paddle with Aimee in the K2?’ And that was a pretty exciting opportunity.”
The fourth-placed finish at Nationals after such a short amount of time in the flat-water boat impressed selectors, CRNZ High Performance boss Nathan Luce said.
"We got excited and thought let's just take each day at a time and not put any pressure, but the improvement started to come and then we knew there was this opportunity with Aimee and thinking, 'ok, we have the No.2 and No.4-ranked Kiwi paddlers and let's gamble and see how they go," Luce said.
"I think they're on this huge improvement curve, but who knows what can happen this year."
That’s the big question around the pair. In such a short space of time, how much can they realistically achieve in such a short space of time?
When pressed on how their 500m time-trial in training has gone, Fisher revealed some promise.
"I think it's going to be close, I think we're going to be right there. We've managed, especially in these last few weeks, to put some really good data down and a really good 500m time-trial the other week and so I think we're going to be in the mix and we'll fight tooth and nail to get it done.”
Luce was a touch more reserved, adding, “if they made the final I wouldn't be surprised but that would be a massive achievement to make an A final.”
Whatever they achieve, it seems 29-year-old McKenzie is here to stay.
Having competed in the iconic Nutri-Grain Ironwoman series since 2014, where’s been a constant presence towards the front of the pack, she’s keen to give the flatwater sport a go until next year’s Olympics and, possibly, beyond.
"The hardest part about doing the flatwater kayaking was committing. I’m pretty happy with everything I've accomplished in surf life-saving so I'm definitely going to stay with kayaking and give this a really good crack," McKenzie said with a smile.
"I'm enjoying it, it's still really new to me, I'm learning so much which is pretty cool.
“There's a lot of changes in the stroke technique, balance also was a bit of an issue but I've now learned to balance and now it's just picking up the sprinting stroke. The flat water is a little bit different to out in the ocean.”
If you’re wondering, she has indeed fallen out while trying to execute that balance.
From learning how to balance, to lining up in a World Championships all in the space of a week – it’s a whirlwind time for Danielle McKenzie and Aimee Fisher.
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