Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek has won his country’s first canoe slalom gold medal and its sixth overall gold in Olympic history with a near perfect performance on the tough Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre course in Tokyo on Monday.
The 34-year-old celebrated his third Olympic performance with a slashing error-free run in a time of 98.25 seconds – the only athlete to go under the 100 second mark.
Czech Lukas Rohan, appearing at his first Olympics, took the silver, while Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis added the bronze to the silver medal he won in London in 2012.
Savsek’s win ended the 25-year domination of the event by Slovakian and French paddlers. Frenchman Martin Thomas finished fifth, while Slovakia’s record of a canoe slalom medal at every Olympics since 1996 came to an end with Matej Benus finishing sixth.
Savsek said he came to Tokyo knowing time was running out for him to win an Olympic medal, after finishing eighth in London and sixth in Rio.
“I was thinking that maybe this was my last chance, that’s why I was working really hard, just thinking about getting a medal at this Olympic Games,” Savsek said.
“This was my goal, and I’m really proud and happy to have done it. In our discipline we’ve been waiting for this medal for a long time, and now it’s the first gold medal for canoe slalom and I am really happy and proud.
“We are small, but we have some good sport athletes. We are big in sport.”
Rohan finished 3.71 seconds behind Savsek in a time which included a two second penalty for a gate touch. The 26-year-old is coached by his father, Jiri, himself a two-time Olympic medalist in C2 from 1992 and 1996.
“For me this is perfect, because I am so happy about my final run because it went exactly as I planned it,” Rohan said.
“I believed I could win a medal. I did a lot to get here in the best shape I could. I just wanted to show it and to make my friends happy at home because they could not be here.
“For Czechs this is the first medal in Tokyo, so for me this is great.”
Sideris Tasiadis came into Tokyo as the number one ranked paddler in the world, but made small mistakes during his final run which cost him valuable time. His bronze medal makes him the first German canoe slalom paddler to win multiple medals.
“I tried to do my best. I know that if you are number one, people say your performance for the past two or three years is so good, they expect you can race and win it,” Tasiadis said.
“But it’s not easy. Canoe slalom is difficult, you do one small mistake, you turn the boat too early or too late, you can lose two or three seconds.
“I want to try for a fourth Olympics. It’s three years to go, but it’s been a long campaign. Some times the body tells you its enough, I’m not now 20, I’m now 31.”
RESULTS FROM TOKYO 2020
MEN’S CANOE
- SAVSEK Benjamin (SLO) 25 (0 seconds penalties)
- ROHAN Lukas (CZE) 101.96 (2)
- TASIADIS Sideris (GER) 103.70 (0)
Pics by Bence Vekassy
