Fox was hot favourite for the K1 gold medal on Tuesday but a late penalty saw her relegated to another bronze, after the same result in Rio and a silver medal in London.

After laying down the second best run in the opening C1 qualifying round on Wednesday, Fox appeared to take a relaxed approach to the second.

She hit the two gates on the upper part of the Kasai Canoe Slalom course but safely navigated the rest, cruising to the finish line.

With the two errors adding four seconds to her score, she was 5.87 seconds behind British leader Mallory Franklin but easily advanced through to the next round.

Reigning world champion German Andrea Herzog sent a warning, delivering the second-fastest time with the semi-final and medal race to come on Thursday.

The C1 is a new event in Tokyo, adding to the schedule in place of a men's C2 to give the sport gender parity.

Meanwhile, Australia's Lucien Delfour impressed finishing with the second-best time in the first qualification run of the men's K1.

Making his second Olympic appearance after finishing 17th in Rio, Delfour was 0.18 seconds behind Italian leader Giovanni de Gennaro.

Australian Associated Press