Lucien Delfour began his quest for Olympic and national selection by recording the fastest K1 heat run on the opening day of racing at the canoe slalom Australian Open in Penrith on Friday.
Delfour was one of seven Australian men to secure a place in Sunday's semi-final with the defending champion making light work of the 20-gate course to finish 0.98 seconds ahead of American Michal Smolen in 85.27.
London K1 silver medallist and current world No.1 Jessica Fox and Ian Borrows set the early pace for Olympic selection at Penrith Whitewater Stadium.
Borrows executed a clean run to safely finish inside the top 20 boats required to advance to the semi-final on Saturday.
The 26-year-old finished 3.23 seconds behind Slovakian Matej Benus who recorded the fastest opening run of 90.71.
Borrows was pleased with his start to the Australian Open.
"I was just looking to put down a good run as I didn't want to have to do a second run today and I did that," Borrows said.
The 2014 Australian Open champion admitted to having a few more nerves than this time last year with the event now doubling as the first Olympic selection trial.
"Everyone has really stepped up their game in training this year and it is going to be really tight to see how everyone goes," he said.
Fox recorded the second-fastest first run to advance to the semi-finals of the women's K1.
While in the men's C2 heats, just 0.06 seconds separated the top three boats in the first runs with German pair Robert Behling and Thomas Becker coming out on top in 99.30.
Frenchman Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche finished second ahead of fellow countrymen Pierre Labarelle and Nicolas Peschier.
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