While once again the big story for New Zealand canoeing will be another Olympic gold medal for superstar Lisa Carrington, the country can now also celebrate having its first ever K4 1000 women’s team at a Games.

The quartet of Jaimee Lovett, Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan not only made their Olympic debut, personally and for New Zealand K4, but also finished fifth in the A final.

“We’re so proud,” Ryan said.

“Who would have thought that we would be here 18 months ago. I think it’s overwhelming right now.

“We’re all really happy. Obviously the middle is not there at the moment, but it’s about the process, and it’s about how we executed, and we can all sit here and say we put it all on the line today and that’s what we got out of it.”

Lovett said the crew felt comfortable, but it was tough going against some very tough European crews.

“We tried to push them through the 250, but there’s some pretty prestigious K4 crews out there, it’s probably one of the strongest K4 fields we’ve ever seen,” Lovett said.

“It shows the depth of the women’s category this weekend. I think we can be very proud of the effort we put in out there.”

The young team is also excited about the legacy their Olympic appearance will have for sprint canoeing in New Zealand.

“I was thinking last night just a little bit about the race, not just this race for ourselves, but all those kids back there who want it just as much as us, and to show these kids that they can do it,” Ryan said.

“It’s so important, and making everyone back home proud, and I think we really did that. I think we showed that we wanted it, and yeah, the result wasn’t there, but we’re pushing these people.

“18 months ago we wouldn’t have thought we’d be pushing against the Belarusians and the Hungarians.

“It just shows – aim high, who knows.”

All four paddlers single out double gold medallist Lisa Carrington as their inspiration, but are also hoping their achievements in Rio will also inspire young girls especially in New Zealand.

“For me at my very first event there were only three paddlers,” Fisher said.

“Lisa Carrington has done so much to inspire us, and now maybe we can inspire some other girls back home.”

The crew now head back to New Zealand to consider their future, but with an average age of less than 25, and the oldest crew member just 28, Tokyo 2020 is very much in the mix.

“We’ve been through some big highs, some big troughs, but these girls have been my life for the last 18 months,” Ryan said.

“We’ve sacrificed a lot together, we’ve had tears, we’ve had joy, we’ve had success, we’ve had the downtimes, but I think at the end of the day, we’ve got each other’s back.

“I wouldn’t want to race with any other girls right now. I mean things change, but I love these girls, and I think we can say we’ve got so much pride for each other and so much joy for each other.”