Lisa CarringtonLisa Carrington with the cup for Albany sportswoman of the year
(Photo: Infonews.co.nz)

Massey University's Albany sportswoman of the year Lisa Carrington is now a world champion after winning the K1 200m final in Hungary overnight.

Ms Carrington (Ng?ti Porou, Te Aitanga-?-M?haki), who is studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in M?ori studies and politics, has now qualified for the London Olympics next year.

She beat competitors from 54 other nations in the event at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary.

The K1 200m is new to the Olympic programme in 2012.

The 22-year old from Whakatane started kayaking in 2006 and first competed internationally at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympics and 2007 Canoe Sprint World Championships.

She joined the open team in 2009 and since then has been competing annually internationally at world cups and world championships.

Ms Carrington was named Massey's Albany sportswoman of the year at a ceremony in Auckland last year. She enjoys the flexibility offered at Massey, studying both extramurally and internally, depending on her racing commitments. As a member of the University's Academy of Sport, she is supported by the University's high-performance programme.

Earlier this year Massey was the first New Zealand university to sign up to the 'Athlete Friendly Tertiary Network' set up by the New Zealand Academy of Sport. The network is made up of tertiary institutions that agree to adopt a set of guiding principles to support New Zealand's high performance athletes to combine their sporting and academic aspirations.