There was relief and disappointment for Olympic silver medallist Jessica Fox at the Australian Canoe Slalom Championships at Penrith on Saturday.
Fox, 21, was the highest-ranked Australian in the women's K1 event, giving her the first victory in the best-of-three Olympic qualifying process.
But her 13th position was not high enough to qualify the former world champion for the final.
"I was a bit disappointed with my racing today," said the London Olympic medallist.
"I had some trouble on gates 17 and 18 and that put me out a bit.
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"It was not my best racing and it was really a fight to the finish. I was obviously relieved and happy to get that first selection win, but I would have loved to have made that final."
Fox was forced to watch while Austria's Corinna Kuhnle won the K1 gold, with Germany's Ricarda Funk taking silver and the Czech Republic's Veronika Vojtova winning bronze.
The Australian star admitted she took risks she didn't need to take, and said the course did not behave the way she thought it would.
"I was nervous today, I didn't react when I needed to, I just froze," she said.
"I think I'll just keep working on the technical side of things, because I've done all the physical work.
"It's just about staying fresh now because we only have two weeks until Oceanias."
It was a similar story in the men's C1, where Penrith's Ian Borrows finished 12th in the semi and failed to make the final, but has the security of winning the first Olympic selection race.
Slovakia's Matej Benus won the gold, ahead of Czech pair Lukas Rohan and Stanislav Jezek.
The final two Olympic qualifying races will be contested at the Oceania Championships later this month.
