The job might be only half done for gold medallist Lisa Carrington, but that couldn't stop the Kiwi canoeist from cracking a big smile.
Defending champion Carrington maintained her five-year dominance in the K1 200m event, powering clear in the second half to leave her seven rivals in the final in her wake.
"It was pretty amazing, I didn't want to celebrate until I saw my name come up on the board," said an ecstatic Carrington.
"It's probably the most excited and happy I've been after a race."
In similar fashion to her victory at London four years ago, the 27-year-old trailed three opponents until about the halfway mark at Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
She remained composed, trusting her technique and power to get the job done.
Victory was actually comfortable given the sport's rapid-fire nature.
Her time of 39.864 seconds was 0.475sec clear of Poland's Marta Walczykiewicz while London silver medallist Inna Osipenko-Rodomska of Azerbaijan won bronze.
"I think I always want to race with a bigger margin so you feel a bit safer, but it just shows how tough the competition is and it's great to have those girls pushing me really hard."
Carrington has completed the first half of what she hopes will be a golden double.
She contests the heats of her second event, the K1 500m, on Thursday (NZT), which hampered her gold medal celebrations.
"It's nice to get halfway through the programme, get the 200m done, and obviously move on."
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