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25.9.2026
The Czech paddler delivered a clean 90.18 seconds, finishing 0.82 ahead of France’s Yohann Senechault and 2.26 ahead of Italy’s Elio Maiutto.
Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin qualified fourth, while Thomas Koechlin completed the top five.
But the biggest stories came below the qualification line.
Reigning World champion and defending European champion Miquel Travé is out.
So is 2024 European champion Ziga Lin Hocevar.
And Slovenia, one of the dominant nations in European men’s C1 in recent seasons, will have no athlete in the final.
Kratochvil arrived in Ivrea as one of the strongest athletes of the season after taking bronze at the 2026 World Championships.
On Friday afternoon, he produced the most complete performance of the semifinal.
His clean 90.18 was enough to beat Senechault by 0.82 seconds and put Czechia at the top of the standings heading into the medal race.
It was particularly important for Czechia because Kratochvil will be its only representative in the final.
Lukas Rohan finished 16th, while Vaclav Chaloupka was 19th after a two-second penalty.
So despite Kratochvil leading the semifinal, Czech depth was heavily reduced before the final.
France produced arguably the strongest collective performance of the semifinal.
Yohann Senechault qualified second with a clean 91.00, while Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin was fourth on 92.93.
Jules Bernardet also progressed in tenth despite a two-second penalty, giving France three athletes among the 12 finalists.
That gives France significant strength heading into the medal race.
Gestin, in particular, remains one of the central figures.
The Paris 2024 Olympic champion was not the fastest in the semifinal, but his clean run comfortably secured qualification and keeps him in position to add a European title to his Olympic crown.
Elio Maiutto continued an excellent Championships for the host nation.
The Italian recorded a raw time of 90.44, but a two-second penalty increased his total to 92.44 and left him third.
Without the touch, Maiutto would have been only 0.26 seconds behind Kratochvil.
Raffaello Ivaldi also progressed safely, qualifying seventh with a clean 93.90.
Italy will therefore have two opportunities in the final.
Flavio Micozzi, however, missed out after finishing 24th.
The most significant elimination belonged to Miquel Travé.
The Spaniard came to Ivrea as both the 2026 World champion and defending European champion in C1.
His raw semifinal time of 92.05 demonstrated that the speed was there.
But four penalty seconds increased his total to 96.05, dropping him to 15th.
The final qualifying position went to Dominik Egyhazy with 95.54.
That means Travé missed the final by only 0.51 seconds.
His elimination is even more striking given how his Championships have unfolded.
Travé had already missed the men’s K1 semifinal on Thursday. Now his C1 campaign — the discipline in which he holds both the World and European titles — has also ended before the final.
Ivrea will therefore crown a new European champion.
If Travé’s elimination was the biggest headline, Ryan Westley experienced the smallest possible margin of disappointment.
The British paddler finished 13th with a clean 95.57.
Egyhazy took the 12th and final qualifying position with 95.54.
Just 0.03 seconds separated a place in the European final from elimination.
Great Britain will still have Adam Burgess in the medal race.
The Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist recorded a raw 92.90 but collected a two-second penalty, qualifying ninth on 94.90.
Slovenia suffered one of the most surprising collective results of the semifinal.
Ziga Lin Hocevar, European champion in 2024, finished 14th with a clean 95.87 — only 0.33 seconds outside the final.
Benjamin Savsek was 20th after a two-second penalty.
Luka Bozic finished 23rd with 99.63.
It means Slovenia will have no representative in the men’s C1 final.
That is especially notable given the country’s recent record.
In 2024, Slovenia swept the European individual podium through Hocevar, Bozic and Savsek.
Two years later in Ivrea, all three have been eliminated in the semifinal.
Another experienced name absent from the final will be Matej Benus.
The Slovakian, Olympic medallist and silver medallist when the European Championships were last held in Ivrea in 2021, finished 22nd after a two-second penalty left him on 98.99.
Slovakia will nevertheless have two finalists.
Marko Mirgorodsky qualified eighth with a clean 94.01, while Dominik Egyhazy took the final qualification position in 12th.
Two other strong performances came from Thomas Koechlin and Liam Jegou.
Koechlin qualified fifth for Switzerland with a clean 93.49, while Ireland’s Jegou followed only 0.33 seconds later in sixth with 93.82.
Both now enter the final from strong positions after clean semifinal runs.
Spain will still have one opportunity despite Travé’s elimination, with Alex Segura progressing in 11th.
The 12 finalists are:
Lukas Kratochvil (CZE), Yohann Senechault (FRA), Elio Maiutto (ITA), Nicolas Gestin (FRA), Thomas Koechlin (SUI), Liam Jegou (IRL), Raffaello Ivaldi (ITA), Marko Mirgorodsky (SVK), Adam Burgess (GBR), Jules Bernardet (FRA), Alex Segura (ESP) and Dominik Egyhazy (SVK).
France leads the representation with three finalists.
Italy and Slovakia each have two.
Czechia, Switzerland, Ireland, Great Britain and Spain each have one.
The semifinal has completely changed the shape of the title race.
Travé, the reigning World and European champion, is gone.
Hocevar, the 2024 European champion, is gone.
Savsek and Bozic are gone.
Benus is gone.
But several major names remain.
Kratochvil enters with the fastest semifinal performance and the confidence of a World Championship bronze medal from earlier this season.
Gestin brings the Olympic title.
Burgess brings Olympic silver.
Senechault and Bernardet give France three opportunities.
And Maiutto and Ivaldi will race in front of an Italian crowd that has already celebrated several medals on Friday.
Only 5.36 seconds separated Kratochvil in first from Egyhazy in 12th, while some of the fastest raw performances were reshaped by penalties.
With the reigning World and European champion eliminated, the men’s C1 final in Ivrea will crown a new European champion — and the title race is suddenly far more open than it looked at the beginning of the day.
© 2021 ECA
