New Zealand Olympic and Bay of Plenty's best canoeist Lisa Carrington created history last year when she easily defended her K1 200m title at the Canoe Racing World Championships in Milan.

This year the Whakatane paddler will look to defend her Olympic title against a world class group of women.

It was the 26-year-old paddler's fourth consecutive world title over that distance, adding to the K1 500m crown she collected for the first time earlier in the meet.

The list of Carrington's milestones is now significant.

Lisa's two wins take her overall world championship gold medal haul to five, which means she passes Paul MacDonald as New Zealand's most successful world championship canoe racer.

She joins Paul as the only New Zealander to win two golds at the same world championship meet, and she is the first women in 16 years - and only the third in history - to hold both the 200m and 500m titles at the same time. She is also unbeaten at the shorter race, since before the last Olympics.

Lisa, showcased her dominance and confirmed her status as the best female paddler in the world.

The reigning Olympic 200m champion is a firm favourite to repeat her double win in Rio de Janeiro later this year.

However, Lisa doesn't quite look at it as her title to defend.

'I think when you line up… to race it's fair-game. So everyone has an opportunity. I don't really go in their defending it. I think if I go in there more so on the offence and really attacking to want it. That will definitely help me mentally… I think it's everyone's title to get.”

The Olympic champion says it's not the titles that keep her motivated to perform.

'I don't aim for getting the most amount of World Championships titles, being the best overall kayaker or whatever.

'It's kind of, I come down here to train just because I have a desire to be better than what I was. With that type of motivation, I think it's not that hard just to keep pushing and try to be great.”

The Olympic run from August 5 to 21.