Saturday semifinals of C1M, C1W and K1M

Ten finalists in each category emerged from Saturday`s morning semifinals which started at 9 am in no wind conditions and warm weather. Benjamin Savsek was the only one among C1M paddlers to squeeze the time under 100s. That happened even with two second penalization from the upstream gate number 16. The rest of the finalists were lined up between 100 and 104 seconds.

Matej Benus, the only medallist from the Rio Olympics to start in Troja and one of the candidates to win the fourt World Cup went straight to the final without penalization as well as six other paddlers. „I eased my pace at the end of the course, because I heard the host commenting on my time and I knew I had the spare seconds. At least I dont need to start as the last one in the finals. The course is so tricky that there will always be mistakes. I will try to repeat the semifinals ride and will not think something special up“, said Benus.

Category C1 women on the same course felt a bit more challenging as only three from the startlist performed clear rides without penalization and for two of them that ensured the final start position. Compared to the men category their time was over 120 seconds. Without difficulty settled up with the course Jessica Fox. She could afford one two second penalization in downstream gate number 21 and still was not endangered.

Last semifinal category was K1 men with fourty kayakers in the startlist. Possible advantage of knowing the course the best moved four Czech kaykers safely to the finals. All four Vit Prindis, Jiri Prskavec, Vavrinec Hradilek and Ondrej Tunka performed a clear run. First Vit Prindis pushed the time under 92 seconds and assuming from a controlled run from all of them the finals might bring more drama.