Australia's Jessica Fox has won gold in the women's C1 final at the season-opening World Cup in Ivrea, Italy.
Fox, who is the reigning world champion in the non-Olympic C1, ran into trouble on her semi-final run and was only able to qualify third fastest, and then looked to be in trouble again early in the final after two gate touches added four seconds in penalties.
But 21-year-old Fox finished the bottom half of the tricky Italian course strongly to take the lead from the UK's Mallory Franklin, and then watched on as Frenchwoman Claire Jacquet and the UK's Kimberley Woods posted slower times.
"My race was solid", Fox said.
"I had a couple of touches on the top section, but I really pushed through to the end and fought hard and had a really good bottom section which is where I think I made up most of my time.
"I felt really good in the last few gates."
Fox finished 0.25 of a second ahead of Franklin, even though she picked up one extra penalty.
Fox will attempt to make it a double gold in Ivrea when she contests the women's K1 on Sunday night, Australian time.
In Portugal meanwhile, Australia's Ken Wallace and Lachlan Tame picked up another silver medal in a World Cup K2 1000 race, as they continue their impressive build-up to this year's Rio Olympics.
The two-time World Championship silver medallists powered home over the final 250 metres to grab second, just 0.16 seconds behind local favourites Emanuel Silva and Joao Ribeiro at Montemor-o-Velho.
Australia's Riley Fitzsimmons and Jordan Wood, the current World U23 Champions, finished third after leading for much of the race.
The silver medal follows on from a second placing for Wallace and Tame at Racice in the Czech Republic one week earlier.
The Australian men's K4 1000 team qualified straight through to Sunday's final after a comprehensive win in their heat.
Also on Saturday Daniel Bowker and Lachlan Tame won straight through to Sunday's final of the non-Olympic K1 500 after easily winning their heats.
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