The Frenchman finished second behind the Briton at last year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 

He also missed out behind him at the last leg of the World Cup in Szeged in Hungary.

There was nothing between the two today on the Ada Ciganlija Regatta Course in the Serbian capital.

But Beaumont hung on to win by just one hundredth of a second in 35.422sec.

"It was very important for me, I would like to get at least one win over Liam before the European or World Championships," he said.

"It will be a very good fight the next time we compete. 

"I am a little tired because I have had a lot of competition without going home, but I tried to do the maximum with the energy I have."

Carlos Garrotte of Spain took third place in 35.610.

Linnea Stensils of Sweden won the corresponding women's event in 41.020.

Slovenia's Spela Janic finished five hundredths behind in second place as Marta Walczykiewicz of Poland took the bronze medal in 41.207.

Czech Republic's Martin Fuksa continued his dominance of the canoe events in 2017, winning the C1 200m to follow his 1,000m victory yesterday.

He clocked 39.522 to defeat Artsem Kozyr of Belarus, in 39.645.

Henrikas Zustautas of Lithuania took third place in 39.660.

There was also a return to form for the German K2 500m Olympic gold medallists, Franziska Weber and Tina Dietz, as they took victory in 1:42.925.

Anna Pulawska and Beata Mikolajczyk of Poland won the silver medal in 1:43.905.

There was a bronze medal for Belgian duo Lize Broekx and Hermien Peters in 1:44.467.