On the first day of racing at the Vector Wero Whitewater Park, Australian women impressed with Rosalyn Lawrence finished top in the K1 in 95.63sec with world champion Jess Fox following in fourth after picking up a penalty and finishing with 99.00.

New Zealand's Olympic silver medallist Luuka Jones also picked up two two second penalties to drop back to third in 98.40.

In the women’s C1, Fox, a three world champion, posted a time more than seven seconds faster than Jones, who finished ranked second. 

Fox’s younger sister Noemie was third-fastest, with another Australian, Kate Eckhardt, following in fourth. 

The most impressive paddler from the home team was Callum Gilbert. 

The 22-year-old from Tauranga was the top qualifier in the men's K1, posting a faultless run of 84.37 to edge top Australian Lucien Delfour by 0.56 seconds. 

Mathieu Biazizzo of France, one of the international competitors taking part in the event, was third in 85.48, 

Reigning world champion Ondřej Tunka of the Czech Republic was fifth after picking up a two seconds penalty touch to finish in 86.64.

"We did a lot of thinking about what could be going on because every run seemed to be the same story," Gilbert said.

"But in the end we decided not to over-analyse things too much, put it down to experience and just get on with it. 

"It's been a long season of tough runs so it was nice to finally have a good one."

International competitors dominated the men’s C1 qualifying, with American Casey Eichfeld recording 92.76, a second quicker than Frenchman Kilian Foulon, with Australians Ian Borrows and Brodie Crawford following in third and fourth respectively.

Semi-finals and finals for both the women's K1 and men's C1 are scheduled to take place tomorrow.

The men’s K1 and the women’s C1 are due to be held on Monday (January 29).

They will take place alongside the first Oceania Extreme Slalom Championships featuring four boats racing down the course at once.