Kimberley Woods finished seventh in an unusually tight final of the women's K1 on the opening day of competition in Prague.
Heavy upstream rain once again threw a curve-ball for the teams at the ICF Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross World Cup in the Czechia capital.
The heightened water levels on the Troja River meant changes to the format with a shorter than normal course and a condensed programme of racing.
With Kayak Cross Paris Olympic quota places up for grabs on Sunday, a revised schedule meant there would be just one heat run for the K1 paddlers today with the top 10 making the cut to the final.
In the women's heat, Rugby's Kimberley Woods threw down the gauntlet by posting the fastest time, over two seconds clear of the next fastest qualifier.
With Camille Vuitton setting the standard of 94.12 in the final, Kimberley overcame a touch on gate two and made up the deficit in the middle part of the course.
Despite some clean and consistent paddling through the final gates, Kimberley crossed the line in 95.36 which placed her in seventh place, just 1.24 behind the winner.
She said: “My time from the heat would've won that which is annoying and I can't believe I was so close in time but still finished seventh.
“We had a similar schedule at the Europeans Championships which didn't go so well for me and I really struggled with my mental health and I had to pick myself up. I'm happy to have made another final here.
“I just had to forget about that. Every run is a whole new race, I love Prague and I smashed it this morning.
“I dealt with the pressure well and put the early touch behind me, in previous races that would've really affected me, but for me to stay with it and take it on, I'm really proud of myself.”
Edinburgh Schools' Lois Leaver put down a solid run to finish in 20th place. A touch on gate 17 and the condensed programme meant that on this occasion, it wasn’t enough to make it through to the final.
Mallory Franklin (Windsor) picked up three touches before one was changed to a 50 and she finished in 44fh place.
Unfortunately for the men's team it wasn’t to be, with the cut from 74 to 10 proving a challenge for many of the world's top kayakers.
Jonny Dickson (CR Cats) was 20th place and again missed out due to the new format.
World Champion Joe Clarke was going well, and despite a touch on gate 5 was within the time needed to make the top 10 standard. But a costly miss on gate 16 put the final out of reach.
His Stafford & Stone team mate Chris Bowers looked good in his heat run but unfortunately two missed gates at the end of the course means he finishes in 71st place.
The full set of results from today can be found here.
For details on how to watch the live stream, click here