McKeever said: "It's nice to start where I finished last year, being in the same location and gaining the same result.

"The field was pretty much the same as the World Championship final, so hopefully there won't be too many more people come out of the wood work, and I can just keep it like today."

In the K2 200m final, Liam Heath and Jon Schofield found themselves neck and neck with French world champions Arnaud Hybois and Sébastien Jouve, and lost out over the final lengths.

Schofield said: "It feels really good to know that we are at the standard where we left off last season and competing closely with the current world champions."

Head coach Brendan Purcell added: "Great results this morning from the 200m guys, Ed just did the job; he is a very professional elite athlete and has proved he can deliver performance after performance.

"It was an exciting race in the K2 200m between us and the French, the boys feel they didn't quite get their best race out but they demonstrated that they are very competitive."

Britons also contested 1000m finals, with Olympic champion Tim Brabants coming eighth in the K4 alongside Ben Farrell, Paul Wycherley and Andrew Daniels.

Wycherley also came sixth in the K2 alongside Jon Boyton.

On the 1000m performances, Purcell said: "We had two A finals, the K2 1000m and the K4 1000m.

"Jon Boyton and Paul Wycherley had a strong performance; they just couldn't quite hold their pace but have lots of positives to take away.

"It was the first international race for the K4 and we now have some key areas for the coaches and athletes to go away and work on, we just need to build over the next couple of regattas."

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