Jessica Fox has stamped herself as the paddler to beat after posting the fastest time as she chases an elusive gold medal in the Olympic K1 event in Paris.
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While she's the reigning Olympic champion in the C1, the 30-year-old has won three medals in the kayak event in her three previous Games but her best result is a silver medal in London in 2012.
In an unprecedented treble, Fox is attempting to win the K1, defend her C1 crown and will also chase gold in the kayak cross which is a new addition to the program in Paris.
Backing up after her flag bearer duties at a sodden opening ceremony, Fox had the second fastest time after their initial run on the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium but stormed home in the second run on Saturday night.
She posted a time of 92.18 seconds, 0.85 clear of Poland's Klaudia Zwolinska while French paddler Camille Prigent had the third fastest time to the delight of a raucous home crowd.
Reigning Olympic champion Ricarda Funk only managed the sixth-fastest time with the German penalised for clipping a gate in each run.
"I felt good, I felt solid on my first run and just wanted to make some improvements for the second run and yeah, feeling good," Fox said.
"I have obviously had a big 24 hours with the opening ceremony so I wanted to make sure I was resting as much as I could to come in with as much energy to go through the process.
"I was expecting to feel flat but didn't so that was good.
"The heats runs are always about putting down solid runs and getting the feel for the water but also the atmosphere ... I couldn't help but smile and feel the goosebumps."
While the result means Fox will be last on to the course for the semi-final on Sunday, which will be followed by the medal race, it otherwise counts for little.
"Everyone gets excited by the number for today but it doesn't mean anything - we go back to zero tomorrow," she said.
"It just means I get a little bit more time to look at the course tomorrow and that's a good thing but it's about qualifying into that final and then trying to do the best run I can."
Fellow Australian Tristan Carter finished his opening run of the men's C1 ranked eighth and was unable to improve on his time with this second outing.
He dropped one spot to ninth, with the 16th fastest men advancing to the semi-finals on Monday.
It was still a massive result for Carter, who was 38th at last year's world championships.
"To be able to go out and do a solid enough run that got me through, that's a great feeling," the 25-year-old Victorian said.
Australian Associated Press
