Canoe Slalom Olympic day 3 review and day 4 K1M medals preview

Denis Gargaud Chanut was crowned as France’s latest Olympic canoe slalom champion. First, a review of the C1M semi-final and final followed by a preview of what to expect on Wednesday for the K1M semi-final.

The Olympic rivalry between France & Slovakia in C1M continues. Both Denis Gargaud Chanut & Matej Benus have maintained the legacies of Tony Estanguet (FRA) and Michal Martikan who combined won 8 Olympic medals.

Benus (SVK) laid down the fastest run of the semi-final and final, until eclipsed by a stunning 94.17 secs run by previous French World Champion Gargaud Chanut.

Takuya Haneda’s bronze medallist is the first ever Olympic medal for Japan and importantly comes 4 years prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Haneda had previously been 7^th in London and 5^th at the 2014 Deep Creek World Championships.

London Olympic silver medallist, Sideris Tasiadis (GER) was again the fastest in the semi-final as he had been in the heats. A touch on gate 9 pushed him outside the podium to finish 5^th. Beijing silver medallist, David Florence (GBR) uncharacteristically picked up 2 touches on gates 13 and 21. Florence had been the quickest in heat 1 but faltered before gate 1 on the new course in the semi-final.

The Olympic C1M final provided personal bests for many paddlers including Vitezslav Gebas (CZE), Benjamin Savsek (SLO), Casey Eichfeld (USA) and Jose Carvalho (POR). 

Day 4 - K1M semi-final & final preview – Wednesday, Aug 10

In the Olympics since Barcelona, we have had 3 German Olympic Champions, 2 Italian Champions and one French. Will this trend continue? Or, will youthfulness from the Czech Republic or Slovakia top experience from Slovenia.

Schedule for the K1M on Wednesday

13:30 / 14:17 – Men´s Canoe Single (K1M) – Semi-final

15:15 / 15:47 – Men´s Canoe Single (K1M) – Final

16:04 / 16:11 – K1M Victory Ceremony

Progression for K1M

Heat winner Giovanni De Gennaro (ITA) will be the last paddler off in the semi-final.

Paddlers to watch in K1M semi-final

The Olympic medallists competing in Rio semi-final is:

• Hannes Aigner (GER) – bronze London 2012

The World Champions competing in Rio semi-final are:

• Jiri Prskavec (CZE) - 2015
• Peter Kauzer (SLO) – 2009 & 2011
• Sebastien Combot (FRA) - 2007 

World Cup series champion competing in Rio semi-final is:

• Peter Kauzer (SLO) – 2009, 2011 & 2015

Experience versus youth

The K1M class has three-time Olympian Peter Kauzer (SLO) and two-time Olympians Hannes Aigner (GER), Mike Dawson (NZL) and Kazuki Yazawa (JPN). Conversely, there are five U23 young guns with nothing to lose; Jiri Prskavec (CZE), 19-year-old Jakub Grigar (SVK) pictured above, Michal Smolen (USA), 19-year-old Mario Leitner (AUT) and local Brazilian hero Pedro Goncalves.

Keep tuning in

Tune in tomorrow for the race analysis of K1M semi-final and final as well as a preview of the C2M & K1W semi-final on Thursday.

Follow the live Olympic canoe slalom race commentary on Twitter @PlanetCanoe or search hashtag #ICFslalom