Paddler Jess Fox defended her Olympic canoeing crown at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in a tense final to make it two golds in Paris and entrench herself as one of Australia’s greatest athletes.

In the final, Fox went down second last in a blazing 99 seconds with just one penalty, awarded in nervous scenes as the final paddler, Gabriela Satková, was navigating the course.

But the Czech accrued an early penalty and appeared off the pace, allowing Fox to celebrate the win from the banks, hugging silver medal-winning German Elena Lilik.

“I was just so happy with pulling out a good run and winning in that way,” Fox said. “If it had been second place she [Satková] would have deserved it.

“I felt like I did my best today, so the emotion was just happiness and joy in putting down my best race in the Olympic final. But then it was just like, it’s surreal, realising what I’ve been able to achieve so far, and being able to share it with everyone.”

After the medal ceremony, Fox crossed the course and celebrated with several hundred fans on the opposite bank, many of them clad in yellow. She was accompanied by her father, Richard, a former Olympic canoeist for Great Britain.

He had run out of the Channel Nine commentary box to share the moment with his daughter, and described the achievement as “amazing”.

“I don’t know how she did it,” he said. “It’s a hot, sticky day, the course was sticky, it was a hard fight through the semi and there was this tension in the air on every stroke.”

The AOC president, Ian Chesterman, said her run blew away the world’s senior canoeing officials watching next to him. “I had the officials of international federations saying perfect, perfect, perfect,” he said.

“She’s just an outstanding human being, and people get that, they see it: her decency, authenticity, she’s a great leader. And then she’s all these incredible things on the field of play.”

The 30-year-old is the first Australian to win six individual Olympic medals, passing the group of Ian Thorpe, Leisel Jones, Shirley Strickland and Anna Meares on five.

And she is just the eighth Australian to win three individual gold medals across any sport, joining Ian Thorpe, Dawn Fraser, Shane Gould, Betty Cuthbert, Murray Rose, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown.

She did so with a brilliant run, finishing the course four-and-a-half seconds faster than any other paddler, reduced to two-and-a-half after the penalty applied for narrowly grazing gate 19.

In her final few strokes Fox gritted her teeth, shouting and splashing the water with her hands as she crossed the line, aware her run was going to be hard to beat.

And the thousands in the stands knew it as well, roaring their approval for the Marseille-born, Australian flag bearer. Fox showed her appreciation, making a heart sign with her hands and saluting the crowd.

She said this victory was very different to her first gold three days ago and she felt “more calm and more relaxed”, compared to the kayak “which almost made me nervous”.

Her victory is the first time any paddler, male or female, has won both canoe and kayak events in the same Olympics. The Australian is in contention to win three gold medals in Paris. She still has the kayak cross event, which runs for four days and finishes on 5 August.

Fox said the Olympics is always going to be arduous and she “felt really good today” but tomorrow was likely to be “rough”. And she was mindful of the demanding nature of kayak cross.

“Kayak cross is a lot more physical, and to go all the way to the end there’s a lot of rounds, you’ve got to manage your energy for that,” she said.

But for now, she said she is just happy to enjoy victory.

“It’s really funny because my emotions – I thought I would just feel relief, but I just feel like ‘ah, so good’.”