Luuka Jones has history in her grasp after a dramatic day of qualifying at the canoe slalom world championships in Spain overnight.

The Tauranga paddler booked a boat spot for New Zealand at next year's Tokyo Olympics and is just one race away from confirming her personal place as just the fourth Kiwi female to attend four Olympics.

Having qualified for the K1 semifinals, Jones now needs to make the top-10 final to join board sailor Barbara Kendall, table tennis star Chunli Li and shotputter Valerie Adams as quadruple Olympians.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Jones on the La Seu course, however, with a horror first heat leaving her in 35th, 13secs off the pace, with only the top-20 progressing directly to the semifinal.

Compounding her problems, the Rio 2016 silver medalist wasn't alone - two-time world champion Corinna Kuhnle and British pair Fiona Pennie and Kimberley Woods were among those to have to square off in the repechage.

"Today was a pretty nerve-wracking day actually - there were a lot of good girls who had bad runs so it was really stacked and I felt a lot of pressure to put down a good run and make it into that final ten spots for the semifinal," Jones says.

Fortunately, her second run was as good as her first was bad; even with a 2sec penalty, her 101.25sec time was the third-fastest of the day in both heats and second only to Kuhnle's 100.23 in the repechage.

And the Olympic qualification dice also fell perfectly for the 30-year-old - under ICF rules, the top 18 countries earn Olympic tickets and only 18 nationals will be represented in the 30-strong semifinals.

"It's great to tick that off on the first day and also great to get New Zealand another spot for the Games. It's not actually mine yet - it's all to play for - but it's great to have that spot in the bag for New Zealand and be potentially heading to my fourth Olympic Games."

If Jones misses the final, she will need to race off against other leading Kiwis in two more selection races early next year, although she'll carry through points gained at the worlds. Her teenaged compatriot Hannah Thomas was 47th in her first K1 run overnight, improving slightly to 37th in her second run.

The other New Zealander in action, men's C1 paddler Ben Gibb, finished 58th in his first run and 31st in his second; however, he can still look to qualify for the Olympics at next year's Oceania championships.

Jones and Thomas are back in action tonight in the women's C1, while fellow Kiwis Callum Gilbert, Finn Butcher and Jack Dangen will contest the men's K1.