The 32-year-old needed all of his trademark explosive power to defeat arch-rival Maxime Beaumont of France in the K1 200 metres final.

Beaumont, the Olympic silver medallist behind Heath, got the better start only for the Briton to fight-back and cross first in 34.259sec on the Hungarian lake.

The Frenchman finished second, 0.054 behind, as Carlos Garrote of Spain placed third, in 34.536.

"I felt a bit of pressure coming here as Olympic champion, but the pressure comes more from myself really to get out there and justify some of the times I have been doing in training and all the work I have put in over the winter," Heath said afterwards.

"I was relieved to see the conditions had calmed down from yesterday which were a bit ‘rock and roll’ down the course.

"I felt strong and there is certainly more in the tank. 

"I was able to push through that lactic phase at the end, which is what I usually do to control the race in my own head."

There was home success in the corresponding women's race as Dóra Lucz of Hungary won in 39.411 to beat New Zealand's Aimee Fisher, second in 39.718, and France's Sarah Guyot, third in 39.942.

Fisher then teamed up with Olympic gold medal winning team-mate Lisa Carrington, along with Kayla Imrie and Caitlin Ryan, to win the women's K4 500m.

The New Zealand quartet clocked 1:30.754 to beat the time of 1:31:454 set by the second-placed Hungarian crew.

Spain finished a further 0.35 behind in third.

Other winners today included Lithuania's Baku 2015 European Games champion Henrikas Žustautas in the men's C1 200m.

He managed a time of 38.008 to defeat Georgia's Zaza Nadiradze, in 38.323, and Russia's Ivan Shtyl, in 38.415.

Canada's Laurence Vince-Lapointe won the women's C1 200m in 45.842.

Kincső Devecseriné Takács took Hungarian silver in 46.157.

Katie Vincent joined her team-mate on the podium by taking Canadian bronze in 46.295.