For home favourite Clarke, it was a first individual world title having won K1 gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

He was last to race in the final having set the quickest time of 90.96sec in the semi-final.

Clarke was comfortably the best performer in the final too, notching a time of 91.32 without penalties to beat Olympic gold medallist Jiří Prskavec of the Czech Republic by 1.74.

Mathis Soudi of Morocco placed third in 93.91.

After his victory, Clarke expressed his elation at success at his home World Championships.

"It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been there and thereabouts so many times, but penalties have always taken that medal away from me, so to come here, do two clean and very fast runs today at home makes it that little bit more special, the icing on the cake, and here we are - loving it," he said.

Fifteen athletes sealed Paris 2024 Olympics quota places for their countries in the men's kayak, but with only one berth per nation available, this went down to Slovakia's Adam Gonšenica in 18^th place in the semi-final.

Defending champion Vít Přindiš of the Czech Republic failed to make the final after finishing 24^th in the semi-final with a time of 98.22, including six seconds of penalties.

In the women's kayak, Fox added to yesterday's canoe bronze by sealing gold in 103.60 despite a two-second penalty on the first gate.

Fox is a three-time kayak Olympic medallist, although her only gold at the Games came in canoe at Tokyo 2020, and this was her first K1 world title since 2018.

"It meant a lot, there’s been such a big build up this week, and 2018 was my last world title, and there was a lot of emotion because that run was full of emotion," Fox said.

"I let it all out at the finish, all the joy, all the emotion."

Slovakia's Eliška Mintálová was her closest challenger with a time of 104.73 including an early two-second penalty on gate three, and penalty-free Klaudia Zwolińska of Poland earned bronze with a 105.00 run.

There were also 15 quota places for the Paris 2024 Olympics secured in the women's kayak down to the last-placed athlete in the semi-final Kate Eckhardt, who collected 52sec in penalties en route to a 165.09 effort.

Athletes could not secure a Paris 2024 ticket in both canoe and kayak, with the canoe quota taking priority.

The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships is due to conclude tomorrow with kayak cross competition.