Lawrence beats Fox for Aust K1 title

Rosalyn Lawrence has upstaged three-time world champion Jessica Fox to win the women's K1 title at the national canoe and kayak slalom championships in Tasmania.

Sydney's Lawrence produced a sizzling run to dominate the final on the Mersey River course, clocking a time of 86.75s to finish 2.34s ahead of London Olympic silver medallist Fox.

The result boosts 26-year-old Lawrence's hopes of toppling her 21-year-old Australian teammate Fox to claim the coveted K1 berth for the Rio Olympics at the selection trials starting on her home course at Penrith in early February.

"I had a really solid run and it all went to plan so I am pretty happy with that," Lawrence said.

"It is nice to know that I can keep the nerves under control and do what I can do but there is a lot of hard work to come between now and selection.

"It is going to come down to the day to see what happens, Lawrence said.

Christian Fabris threw down the gauntlet to his Olympic berth challengers as he retained the men's C1 title.

The Melbourne paddler faces stiff competition for the C1 spot in Rio but he showed he was primed for the selection battles ahead.

He recorded a clean run down the 18-gate course to finish 1.04 seconds ahead of 2014 champion Robin Jeffery in a time of 84.74s with Sydney's Ian Borrows third in 85.87.

" I am just really chuffed," Fabris said.

"I did what I wanted to do out there. It was tricky as there were quite a few fiddly moves but I guess I just held it together and executed a good race plan.

"It is nice to see that some of the stuff that I am working on is coming together.

"I guess I need to go home and build on it the next few weeks leading into selection in February."

The fight for selection will begin at the Australian Open at Penrith from February 5-7 with the Oceania Championships to follow from the February 19-21.