Tauranga's Callum Gilbert has made it four from four in the latest round of the International Canoe Federation World Cup canoe slalom series in Prague.

The young Kiwi had a clean second heat to cruise through to his fourth semifinal appearance of the season, clocking 90.01secs for the sixth-fastest K1 time.

Tauranga kayaker Callum Gilbert. Photo: Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

'I said at the start of the season I wanted to work on solid, consistent runs and so far it has been working really well,” says Gilbert.

'I've surpassed my goals for the season and am chuffed with how I've done so far.”

Finn Butcher and Mike Dawson both had gate touches in their second runs, clocking 93.55secs to finish out of the running in 15th and 16th respectively. Only a single touch kept Butcher from qualifying in the first heat, with a 92.32 time putting him 33rd, just 0.54secs outside the top-30.

Ben Gibb also struck gate trouble in the C1 first heat, picking up four touches - a clean run would've been fast enough for the top-10, with three more touches in the second run ending his weekend.

Jane Nicholas was 39th in the first run of the women's K1, with Kensa Randle 10 spots further back - while Randle was vastly improved in the second round, finishing 20th, Nicholas missed gate 9 to end her chances.

Gilbert now turns his attention to the K1 semifinals on Saturday night (NZ time), keen to build on a breakthrough season.

'I've only had one really solid semi run this season and want to try to better that tomorrow. It's another tough semifinal field with some quality paddlers so it will be good to see how I mix with them again.”

New Zealand's Olympic silver medalist Luuka Jones is sitting out the last two rounds of the season; her next event will be November's inaugural WhitewaterXL at the new Vector Wero Whitewater Park in Auckland, where she and Dawson will be among the event ambassadors.