New Zealand kayaker Luuka Jones emulated her world championship placing on her first competitive outing at the venue for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, finishing 11th at the Aquece Rio test event today.

The two-time Olympian clocked 130.84secs in her semi-final run, more than 6secs adrift of making the final, after a faltering finish on the tough Itaipu Channel course.

Luuka Jones in action.

"I was having a really sick top section and was going out to attack it - there were a few girls being a bit tentative and that's not really how I wanted to race," Jones says. "I had a really fast top section but then halfway down got out of shape and never got it back. I had to paddle back for a gate and just had a bit of a nightmare really."

The highly technical course, on Latin America's only artificial white water venue, has drawn plenty of comments from the 200 athletes taking part in the test event, which was officially opened last week, with Jones no exception.

"The white water is not as big as London so they really made us zig-zag across the course. After five days of training, I don't think anyone really had a certain plan or had a real gauge of what the water's doing over here so it was really interesting racing."

Austrian 38-year-old Violetta Obliger-Peters turned back the clock in the K1 women's final, setting an early target time of 105.77 that was eventually unanswered by the world-class roster.

Fourth out of the blocks, Obliger-Peters was more than a second quicker than the rest of the field, managing to hold off challenges from the recently-crowned world champion Katerina Kudejova (Czech Republic) and Spaniard Maialen Chourrant.

The other New Zealander competing, Mike Dawson, finished 17th in the men's event, narrowly missing the top-15 semi-final field.

Frenchman Mathieu Biazizzo demonstrated why he is considered one of the best up-and-coming paddlers on the international circuit, with the 24-year-old winning the men's final.

German Sebastian Schubert was second with Biazizzo's compatriot, Sebastien Combot, taking bronze.

Jones and Dawson now have a further fortnight of training on the course before returning to New Zealand.