Kayak Singles, Slalom, Men

Ireland’s Ian Wiley and Germany’s Oliver Fix were the reigning European and World Champions respectively in the K-1 Slalom, while Italy’s Pierpaolo Ferrazzi was the defending Olympic champion and Jochen Lettmann was the most recent Olympic and European bronze medalist. Fix, Wiley, and Lettmann were first, third, and fifth respectively after the first run, while Ferrazzi was 32nd. In second was another German, Thomas Becker, while Slovenia’s Andraž Vehovar was fourth. Fix performed poorly in the second run, ending up in 37th, but his original score was good enough to claim the gold medal. Vehovar, meanwhile, had an excellent second run, but it was still 0.43 seconds shy of Fix’s mark and thus the Slovenian had to settle for silver. Becker, meanwhile, improved his score sufficiently to snatch the bronze medal, while Wiley was 34th in the second portion of the tournament and thus placed in fifth on the basis of his original mark. Ferrazzi was 11th in the second run, which was good enough only for 17th overall, while Lettmann fell to eighth after failing to better his previous score.