The Men's K1 at the

2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships The 2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships took place from 22 to 26 September 2021 in Bratislava, Slovakia under the auspices of International Canoe Federation (ICF). It was the 41st edition. The events took place at the Čunovo Water Sports Ce ...

took place on 23 and 25 September 2021 at the Čunovo Water Sports Centre in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

. It was the 41st edition of the event, and 80 athletes from 36 nations competed. The event was won by

Boris Neveu Boris Neveu (born 12 April 1986) is a French slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2004. Biography Neveu won 16 medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with five golds (K1: 2014, 2021; K1 team: 2006, 2014, ...

of France, winning his second title, after he led a French one-two-three in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. Italian underdog

Marcello Beda Marcello Beda (born 10 January 1995) is an Italian slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2012. He won a silver medal in the K1 event at the 2021 World Championships in Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: P ...

won silver in his first international final, while

Joan Crespo Joan Crespo Sistiaga (born 29 January 1988) is a Spanish slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2004. He won four medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold (K1 team: 2019) and three bronzes (K1: 20 ...

matched his result from

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

with bronze.

Background

Czech Jiří Prskavec entered the event a clear favourite, as the reigning World Champion, Olympic Champion and World No. 1. The host nation Slovakia fielded Olympic silver medallist

Jakub Grigar Jakub Grigar (born 27 April 1997) is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2012. He specializes in the K1 discipline and occasionally competes in kayak cross. Grigar competed at two Olympic Games. He finished ...

. Czech Vít Přindiš came into the event having won the last two World Cup rounds en route to the overall World Cup title, also winning the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

and the extreme overall World Cup title. World No. 3 Joe Clarke also entered as a favourite, and with something to prove after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

Andrej Málek Andrej Málek (born 4 February 1995) is a retired Slovak slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 2010 to 2019. He retired from the sport in 2020. He won a silver medal in the K1 team event at the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World ...

was the last athlete to win a major ICF race on the Bratislava course, winning the second round of the 2019 World Cup, but he did not take part after retiring in 2020.

Competition format

The Men's K1 event in canoe slalom uses a three-round format with heats, a semifinal and final. Athletes complete up to two runs in the heats. In the first heat, the 30 fastest men qualify automatically for the semifinal, whilst the rest complete another run in the repêchage second heat for a further 10 qualification positions. The final rank of non-qualifying athletes is determined by their second run score. Athletes start in the reverse order of their heats position in the semifinal and complete a single run, with the top 10 advancing to the final. The athlete with the best time in the single-run final is awarded gold. Penalties of 2 or 50 seconds are incurred for infractions such as missing a gate, touching a gate, or not negotiating gates in numerical order. A team may request up to one review of a penalty per boat in the heats or semifinals phases, with no enquiries considered in the finals.

Schedule

All times are Central European Summer Time ( UTC+2)

Results

2014 World Champion

topped the first heat with a clean 82.14, a day after winning the Team world title, ahead of Czechs Vít Přindiš and

Vavřinec Hradilek Vavřinec Hradilek (; born 10 March 1987) is a Czech slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2003. Hradilek competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In the K1 event he finished seventh in the qualification rou ...

. Sergei Maimistov won the second heat representing the

Russian Canoe Federation Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and pe ...

, 1.15 off Neveu's first run time. Joe Clarke and Slovak

Martin Halčin Martin Halčin (born 22 May 1991) is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2008, specializing mostly in the K1 discipline. He occasionally competes in kayak cross as well. He won two silver medals in the K1 ...

were the two highest

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

athletes to miss out on the semifinal. With both Germans Noah Hegge and

Stefan Hengst Stefan Hengst (born 17 March 1994) is a German slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2011. He won three medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with two golds (Kayak cross: 2019, K1 team: 2022 File:2022 c ...

setting equal times of 85.95 in the first heats run to finish 30th, 41 athletes progressed to the semifinal. 34 of the 41 who progressed to the semifinal did so with a penalty-free run. The semifinal was won by home favourite

, with a time of 85.16, ahead of Hegge and

, both making their first World Championship final. After the nation won 4 of the last 6 World Championship titles in this event, no Czech athletes qualified for the final, making this the first final without Czech participation since 2014. By finishing 9th in the semifinal, Brazilian

Pedro Gonçalves Pedro António Pereira Gonçalves (; born 28 June 1998), known as Pedro Gonçalves or Pote, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Primeira Liga club Sporting CP and the Portugal national tea ...

became the first South American to progress to the World Championships final in this event since Thomas Bersinger placed 4th in 2014. This also marked the first time since

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

that all three German athletes made the final. Neveu became the 2021 K1M World Champion with a clean run of 83.92, almost 4 seconds clear of silver medalist Beda, while

won bronze at a second consecutive World Championship. The standard in the final was such that 7 of the athletes would have won a medal, had they completed the course in the same time as their semifinal. Penalties are included in the time shown. The fastest time in each round is shown in bold.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships - Men's K1 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships World Championships ICF International sports competitions hosted by Slovakia Sport in Bratislava Canoeing in Slovakia ICF