Men's K1 at the 2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships
Venue	Čunovo Water Sports Centre
Location	Bratislava, Slovakia
Dates	23–25 September 2021
Competitors	80 from 36 nations
Medalists
Boris Neveu    France   Marcello Beda    Italy   Joan Crespo    Spain

Events at the 2021 World Championships
Individual events
C1	men	women
K1	men	women
Extreme	men	women
Team events
C1	men	women
K1	men	women

The Men's K1 at the 2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships took place on 23 and 25 September 2021 at the Čunovo Water Sports Centre in Bratislava.^[1] It was the 41st edition of the event, and 80 athletes from 36 nations competed.^[2]

The event was won by Boris Neveu of France, winning his second title, after he led a French one-two-three in 2014. Italian underdog Marcello Beda won silver in his first international final, while Joan Crespo matched his result from 2019 with bronze.^[3]

Background

Czech Jiří Prskavec entered the event a clear favourite, as the reigning World Champion, Olympic Champion and World No. 1.^[4][5] The host nation Slovakia fielded Olympic silver medallist Jakub Grigar.^[6] 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 and the extreme overall World Cup title.^[7] World No. 3 Joe Clarke also entered as a favourite, and with something to prove after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.^[8] Andrej Málek 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[10]

Schedule

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

Results

2014 World Champion Boris Neveu 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.^[11] Sergei Maimistov won the second heat representing the Russian Canoe Federation, 1.15 off Neveu's first run time. Joe Clarke and Slovak Martin Halčin were the two highest ranked athletes to miss out on the semifinal. With both Germans Noah Hegge and Stefan Hengst 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 Jakub Grigar, with a time of 85.16, ahead of Hegge and Marcello Beda, 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 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 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 Joan Crespo 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.^[3]

Penalties are included in the time shown. The fastest time in each round is shown in bold.

Rank	Bib	Canoeist	Nation	Heats						Semifinal[12]			Final[13]
				Run 1[14]			Run 2[15]
				Time	Pen.	Order	Time	Pen.	Order	Time	Pen.	Order	Time	Pen.	Order
	6	Boris Neveu	France	82.14	0	1	-			87.12	2	6	83.92	0	1
	33	Marcello Beda	Italy	85.74	0	27	-			86.82	0	3	87.75	0	2
	10	Joan Crespo	Spain	85.33	0	21	-			87.05	0	4	87.90	2	3
4	7	Giovanni De Gennaro	Italy	83.05	0	4	-			87.91	2	8	90.22	4	4
5	23	Stefan Hengst	Germany	85.95	2	30	-			88.66	2	10	90.68	2	5
6	30	Noah Hegge	Germany	85.95	0	30	-			86.25	0	2	91.18	4	6
7	12	Jakub Grigar	Slovakia	84.24	0	14	-			85.16	0	1	92.39	2	7
8	2	Peter Kauzer	Slovenia	83.20	0	5	-			87.47	4	7	136.10	52	8
9	5	Hannes Aigner	Germany	84.75	0	18	-			87.09	0	5	139.72	52	9
10	28	Pedro Gonçalves	Brazil	87.62	0	39	85.97	2	7	88.15	0	9	141.22	54	10
11	1	Jiří Prskavec	Czech Republic	84.87	0	19	-			88.71	0	11	did not advance
12	9	Mathieu Biazizzo	France	86.57	2	34	86.67	0	9	88.81	2	12
13	22	Pavel Eigel	RCF	88.78	0	42	84.68	0	3	88.95	0	13
14	43	Adam Gonšenica	Slovakia	83.91	2	12	-			89.05	2	14
15	8	Lucien Delfour	Australia	85.38	2	22	-			89.07	2	15
16	21	Niko Testen	Slovenia	84.43	0	16	-			89.10	0	16
17	11	Dariusz Popiela	Poland	85.90	0	29	-			89.19	0	17
18	20	Lukas Werro	Switzerland	85.72	0	26	-			90.37	0	18
19	27	Benjamin Renia	France	83.23	0	6	-			91.19	4	19
20	37	Erik Holmer	Sweden	85.50	0	24	-			91.44	2	20
21	16	David Llorente	Spain	83.83	0	11	-			91.83	4	21
22	24	Isak Öhrström	Sweden	86.57	2	34	83.85	0	2	92.06	0	22
23	15	Bradley Forbes-Cryans	Great Britain	85.38	0	22	-			92.44	4	23
24	32	Mario Leitner	Austria	84.25	0	15	-			92.58	2	24
24	40	Mathieu Desnos	Brazil	141.44	50	73	85.38	0	6	92.58	6	24
26	17	Michal Smolen	United States	85.82	0	28	-			92.61	2	26
27	13	Felix Oschmautz	Austria	83.60	0	7	-			92.96	6	27
28	47	Sergei Maimistov	RCF	88.26	2	41	83.29	0	1	93.48	0	28
29	49	Gabriel De Coster	Belgium	84.73	2	17	-			93.78	2	29
30	39	Gelindo Chiarello	Switzerland	86.52	0	33	84.73	0	4	93.96	4	30
31	31	Finn Butcher	New Zealand	84.88	0	20	-			95.57	4	31
32	48	Nikita Gubenko	RCF	86.44	2	32	86.32	0	8	95.80	4	32
33	42	Pau Echaniz	Spain	83.78	0	10	-			98.27	8	33
34	36	Christian De Dionigi	Italy	87.03	2	37	84.82	0	5	99.52	6	34
35	14	Martin Dougoud	Switzerland	83.71	0	9	-			136.54	52	35
36	4	Vít Přindiš	Czech Republic	82.51	0	2	-			136.74	50	36
37	25	Christopher Bowers	Great Britain	84.19	0	13	-			138.21	50	37
38	19	Vavřinec Hradilek	Czech Republic	82.85	0	3	-			139.35	52	38
39	26	Martin Srabotnik	Slovenia	85.55	0	25	-			139.37	52	39
40	41	Rafał Polaczyk	Poland	92.15	2	51	87.23	0	10	142.68	54	40
41	29	Callum Gilbert	New Zealand	83.60	0	7	-			154.51	56	41
42	34	Krzysztof Majerczak	Poland	141.86	50	74	87.74	0	11	did not advance
43	18	Martin Halčin	Slovakia	90.64	0	46	87.97	2	12
44	52	Alistair McCreery	Ireland	91.40	0	50	88.21	0	13
45	59	Jordan Sherman	United States	90.78	0	47	88.48	0	14
46	44	Fredrik Wahlén	Sweden	89.18	0	45	88.82	0	15
47	3	Joe Clarke	Great Britain	86.71	2	36	90.11	0	16
48	70	Djanibek Temirgaliev	Uzbekistan	91.04	0	48	90.29	0	17
49	35	Kazuya Adachi	Japan	87.22	2	38	91.61	0	18
50	58	Kaelin Friedenson	United States	96.17	6	53	92.16	0	19
51	53	Trevor Boyd	Canada	99.98	6	60	92.39	0	20
52	45	Guilherme Rodrigues	Brazil	89.13	0	44	93.11	2	21
53	50	Martin Stanovsky	Kazakhstan	96.94	2	55	95.93	2	22
54	51	Yusuke Muto	Japan	87.73	0	40	96.25	6	23
55	60	Angel Petrushev	North Macedonia	97.05	2	56	96.47	2	24
56	63	Milos Jevtic	Serbia	103.72	2	63	96.48	2	25
57	62	Moritz Kremslehner	Austria	94.58	2	52	96.84	0	26
58	46	Zack Mutton	New Zealand	88.82	0	43	97.33	2	27
59	71	Barkamol Mirzakhamdamov	Uzbekistan	96.88	2	54	99.73	2	28
60	55	Mael Rivard	Canada	103.99	2	64	101.33	0	29
61	77	Niek Hendriks	Netherlands	99.02	4	58	102.20	4	30
62	76	Donovan Wewege	South Africa	130.84	2	71	102.66	2	31
63	66	Ognjen Dimitrijevic	Serbia	165.87	56	78	102.71	0	32
64	78	Martins Plaudis	Latvia	114.96	4	66	103.99	0	33
65	64	Nour Ait Kaddour	Morocco	99.91	2	59	105.99	6	34
66	67	Marko Dordevic	Serbia	98.59	2	57	110.25	0	35
67	61	Gustas Malakauskas	Lithuania	103.12	4	61	110.57	0	36
68	56	Jean-Benoit Lemay	Canada	148.48	52	75	110.99	8	37
69	75	Vejas Pranskunas	Lithuania	121.38	6	69	115.14	6	38
70	54	Andraz Echeverria Olguin	Chile	103.70	6	62	124.87	2	39
71	69	Ricardo Fentanes	Mexico	132.83	6	72	129.01	4	40
72	79	Patrick Kozma	Romania	358.59	204	79	129.05	4	41
73	38	Igor Tsviet	Ukraine	91.21	2	49	135.47	50	42
74	74	Alexandr Voroshilov	Uzbekistan	104.80	0	65	156.68	52	43
75	72	Samuel Muturi	Kenya	118.74	4	67	162.87	2	44
76	57	Jun Yi Ong	Singapore	120.84	8	68	168.30	54	45
77	80	Matteo-Alexander Olar	Romania	122.56	8	70	170.97	4	46
78	68	Ignacio Bakovic	Chile	158.86	52	77	205.64	100	47
79	65	Vilius Rasimavicius	Lithuania	155.76	56	76	211.65	106	48
80	73	Levis Peter Karanja	Kenya	611.85	514	80	542.62	458	49

References