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Maiutto produced a clean run of 81.81 seconds, finishing just 0.18 seconds ahead of Czechia’s Lukas Kratochvil. France’s Jules Bernardet was third, with Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin fourth and Slovenia’s Ziga Lin Hocevar completing the top five.

With less than one second separating the first four athletes, the heats confirmed just how tight the men’s C1 battle is likely to be.

Maiutto gives Italy another heat victory

Italy continued its excellent opening day with another athlete at the top of the standings.

Elio Maiutto was fastest of the 47 starters with a clean 81.81, while Flavio Micozzi also impressed in ninth place with 84.29.

Raffaello Ivaldi completed a perfect qualification record for the host nation in 23rd, despite a two-second penalty.

All three Italian paddlers therefore progress to the semifinal, continuing a highly successful morning for the home team after strong performances across the kayak events.

Kratochvil confirms his world championship form

Lukas Kratochvil finished second, only 0.18 seconds behind Maiutto. The Czech paddler arrived in Ivrea after taking bronze at the 2026 World Championships in Oklahoma City, behind Miquel Travé and Adam Burgess.

His clean 81.99 put him immediately among the fastest athletes in the European field.

Czechia also qualified Lukas Rohan in 15th and Vaclav Chaloupka in 19th, giving the country three athletes in the semifinal.

Gestin starts his Olympic title defence strongly

Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin safely progressed in fourth place with a clean 82.73. The Frenchman remains one of the biggest names in the men’s C1 field after winning Olympic gold at Paris 2024.

France enjoyed one of the strongest collective performances of the session.

Jules Bernardet finished third, Gestin fourth and Yohann Senechault sixth, putting three French athletes inside the top six. It leaves France in an excellent position heading into the semifinal.

Travé safely through after K1 disappointment

Miquel Travé returned to the course after narrowly missing the men’s K1 semifinal earlier in the morning.

In C1, his main discipline, the Spaniard safely progressed in tenth place. Travé recorded a raw time of 82.49, but a two-second penalty left him on 84.49.

The result keeps the reigning 2026 world champion and 2025 European champion firmly in the fight for another major title. Travé won the world crown in Oklahoma City ahead of Adam Burgess and Lukas Kratochvil, after already taking the European title in 2025.

His morning therefore produced contrasting fortunes: elimination by one place in K1, but comfortable progression in C1.

Hocevar, Bozic and Savsek all progress for Slovenia

Slovenia once again showed impressive depth. Ziga Lin Hocevar finished fifth with a clean 83.30, while Luka Bozic was 11th and Benjamin Savsek 20th. All three are major championship medallists.

Hocevar won the European C1 title in 2024, ahead of Bozic and Savsek, giving Slovenia a complete sweep of the podium that year.

Hocevar also took European bronze in 2025.

With all three safely through, Slovenia remains one of the strongest nations in the event.

The Paris 2024 podium stays intact

All three medallists from the Paris 2024 Olympic men’s C1 final qualified for the semifinal.

Gestin was fourth, Adam Burgess finished 25th and Matej Benus 22nd.

In Paris, Gestin took gold, Burgess silver and Benus bronze.

The three will now meet again in the European semifinal.

Burgess, however, had a difficult heat. His raw time of 83.09 was among the fastest in the field, but four penalty seconds dropped him to 25th.

Great Britain gets all three athletes through

Despite Burgess’ penalties, Great Britain still achieved a perfect qualification record.

Peter Linksted finished 12th, Ryan Westley 21st and Burgess 25th.

The British team arrives with strong recent credentials, having won the 2025 European men’s C1 team title and the 2026 World Championship team title.

All three individual athletes remain alive in the race for the European crown.

Benus returns to another Ivrea semifinal

Matej Benus qualified in 22nd with a clean 86.39. The Slovak knows this course particularly well.

When the European Championships were last held in Ivrea in 2021, Benus won the men’s C1 silver medal behind Denis Gargaud Chanut.

Slovakia also qualified Marko Mirgorodsky in 16th and Dominik Egyhazy in 24th, meaning all three Slovak athletes move into the semifinal.

The battle around the cut could hardly have been closer

The fight for the final semifinal places was extremely tight.

Dmitrii Khramtsov took 30th place with 88.33, while Szymon Nowobilski and Klass Francisks Rozentals tied for 31st on 88.42 — only 0.09 seconds outside qualification.

That means two athletes missed the semifinal by less than a tenth of a second.

For Poland, the result was particularly painful. Michal Wiercioch qualified in 27th, but Nowobilski missed out by the smallest of margins and Kacper Sztuba dropped to 45th after a 50-second penalty.

A semifinal packed with major champions

The top 30 now contains virtually every major title-holder expected to challenge in Ivrea.

Reigning world and European champion Miquel Travé is through.

Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin remains safely in contention.

Paris silver medallist Adam Burgess and bronze medallist Matej Benus both progressed.

Former European champions Ziga Lin Hocevar, Benjamin Savsek and other major medallists remain in the field.

And Lukas Kratochvil, bronze medallist at the 2026 World Championships, was only 0.18 seconds away from winning the heats.

But after the final heats of the morning, the headline once again belongs to Italy.

Elio Maiutto was fastest, all three Italian paddlers advanced, and the host nation heads into the afternoon team finals after an extremely strong opening session in Ivrea.