Jackson won his fifth men's gold, and third in a row, and his 10^th overall world title at Columbus in Georgia with two sublime performances.

He set the marker down in the semi-final with a score of 1,443.33 points to cruise into the gold medal event.

Despite a worse display in the decider, the 30-year-old put up 1,363.33 to beat Canadian Nicholas Troutman by 150.00 points while Frenchman Tom Dolle made up the podium on 818.33.

The women's final saw Donnelly, a junior world champion from 2015, pull off an upset against Britain's Ottilie Robinson-Shaw.

She snatched gold away from the defending world champion by just 35 points, with a total score of 445.00.

Her gold was the first medal of any colour for the United States in the women's kayak since Emily Jackson won the title in 2015.

Jackson made the podium again with a 381.67-point bronze medal.

"I've been working a lot, and doing a lot of creek boating so muscle-wise I'm still really fit and I've been on the water a lot, which I think helped a lot in adapting to here," Donnelly said.

"I didn't really have a big expectation.

"In the back of my mind I knew if I could get my whole ride, maybe I could medal.

"I've been working on changing my mindset a lot with my competition, and I think it worked out. 

"In 2020 I decided to take a break from competition when COVID hit because I realised I wasn't really happy, and I wasn't having fun when I was kayaking any more, which was a huge problem for me.

"But this year has been a great year, and I'm stoked with how it went."

Robinson-Shaw was not too hard done by as she had won the women's canoe decked surface final two days earlier on 175.00 points while Seth Chapelle led a US podium sweep in the men's event on 858.33.

Further American success came as Landon Miller won the open canoe surface final after Taft Sibley and Rose Wall triumphed in the men's and women's squirt deciders.