Women's K1 at the 2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships
Venue	Čunovo Water Sports Centre
Location	Bratislava, Slovakia
Dates	23–25 September 2021
Competitors	58 from 29 nations
Medalists
Ricarda Funk    Germany   Elena Apel    Germany   Kimberley Woods    Great Britain

Events at the 2021 World Championships
Individual events
C1	men	women
K1	men	women
Extreme	men	women
Team events
C1	men	women
K1	men	women

The Women's K1 at the 2021 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships took place on 23 and 25 September 2021 at the Čunovo Water Sports Centre in Bratislava.^[1] It was the 41st edition of the event, and 58 athletes from 29 nations competed.

Background

Eva Terčelj of Slovenia entered as the reigning world champion, having taken the title in 2019 in La Seu d'Urgell.^[2] Jess Fox was the World No. 1^[3] and came into the championship having won the 2021 World Cup overall title and the last three World Cups.^[4] Ricarda Funk was the Olympic Champion from Tokyo and had the opportunity to become the first athlete to win the Olympics and World Championships in the same calendar year.^[5][6] World number 3 Corinna Kuhnle was also a favourite, as the winner of the 2019 World Cup round on this course and having become European Champion earlier this year.^[7]

3-time Olympic medallist Maialen Chourraut and World No. 5 Stefanie Horn were notable absentees from the field.^[8] Leading into the event, Jana Dukátová announced her retirement, ending a 25-year career that saw her become a three-time World Champion: 2006 in K1; 2010 in C1; and 2011 in K1 team.^[9]

Competition format

The women's K1 event in canoe slalom uses a three-round format with heats, a semifinal and final. Athletes complete up to two runs in the heats. In the first heat, the 20 fastest women qualify automatically for the semifinal, whilst the rest complete another run in the repêchage second heat for a further 10 qualification positions. The final rank of non-qualifying athletes is determined by their second run score. Athletes start in the reverse order of their heats position in the semifinal and complete a single run, with the top 10 advancing to the final. The athlete with the best time in the single-run final is awarded gold.^[10]

Penalties of 2 or 50 seconds are incurred for infractions such as missing a gate, touching a gate, or not negotiating gates in numerical order. A team may request up to one review of a penalty per boat in the heats or semifinals phases, with no enquiries considered in the finals.^[10]

Schedule

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Results

Tokyo Olympic bronze-medallist Jessica Fox topped the first heat with a clean 89.18 ahead of Olympic Champion Ricarda Funk. Camille Prigent won the second heat with the fourth-fastest time of the day. 2016 Olympic silver-medallist Luuka Jones finished 14th in the second heat, missing out on a spot in the semifinal.^[11]

Despite 4 seconds of penalties, Funk topped the semifinal ahead of Corinna Kuhnle and Fiona Pennie. Fox initially set the fastest time but was awarded a 50-second penalty on downstream gate 12, placing 25th. Reigning Champion Eva Terčelj also received a 50-second penalty, finishing 26th.^[12] This left Kuhnle as the only previous World Champion (2010 and 2011) in the final.

Funk won the 2021 K1W World Championship in a time of 94.80, including a 2-second penalty. Fellow countrywoman Elena Apel won silver, forming the first quinella in this event since Angelika Bahmann and Petra Krol finished 1–2 in 1977. Great Britain's Kimberley Woods won bronze, 3 days after winning the teams title and just a week after being involved in a car accident whilst preparing for the event.^[11] Funk's victory marked the first time any canoe slalom athlete became Olympic and World Champion in the same calendar year.^[6][12]

Penalties are included in the time shown. The fastest time in each round is shown in bold.

Rank	Bib	Canoeist	Nation	Heats						Semifinal[13]			Final[14]
				Run 1[15]			Run 2[16]
				Time	Pen.	Order	Time	Pen.	Order	Time	Pen.	Order	Tme	Pen.	Order
	2	Ricarda Funk	Germany	89.99	0	2	-			98.21	4	1	94.80	2	1
	19	Elena Apel	Germany	91.99	0	4	-			101.45	2	7	97.31	0	2
	14	Kimberley Woods	Great Britain	96.90	0	16	-			102.46	6	8	97.90	2	3
4	3	Corinna Kuhnle	Austria	92.85	0	7	-			98.48	2	2	98.60	4	4
5	17	Fiona Pennie	Great Britain	97.88	2	24	91.51	0	2	99.05	0	3	99.84	4	5
6	23	Antonie Galušková	Czech Republic	100.02	2	31	95.23	0	6	100.96	0	5	101.29	2	6
7	11	Klaudia Zwolińska	Poland	97.27	0	18	-			101.02	4	6	104.10	0	7
8	12	Viktoriia Us	Ukraine	95.32	0	11	-			103.24	2	9	109.17	8	8
9	15	Marie-Zelia Lafont	France	97.74	4	23	96.60	0	9	103.71	4	10	148.94	50	9
10	8	Camille Prigent	France	98.58	0	26	91.32	0	1	99.17	2	4	207.28	100	10
11	20	Evy Leibfarth	USA	95.63	0	13	-			104.91	4	11	did not advance
12	5	Mallory Franklin	Great Britain	96.93	2	17	-			106.57	0	12
13	32	Marta Bertoncelli	Italy	152.63	52	48	97.11	0	10	106.60	2	13
14	27	Ajda Novak	Slovenia	97.37	0	19	-			106.74	4	14
15	7	Kateřina Minařík Kudějová	Czech Republic	95.21	2	10	-			107.28	2	15
16	24	Noemie Fox	Australia	96.42	0	15	-			107.65	4	16
17	30	Jana Dukátová	Slovakia	94.75	0	9	-			108.49	2	17
18	21	Lucie Nesnídalová	Czech Republic	95.65	2	14	-			108.72	6	18
19	13	Eliška Mintálová	Slovakia	91.29	0	3	-			109.16	0	19
20	29	Soňa Stanovská	Slovakia	107.81	4	39	94.97	0	5	111.32	2	20
21	9	Urša Kragelj	Slovenia	92.76	2	5	-			112.34	2	21
22	22	Mònica Dòria	Andorra	98.53	2	29	94.15	2	4	115.62	4	22
23	10	Ana Sátila	Brazil	92.80	2	6	-			118.63	2	23
24	26	Ekaterina Perova	RCF	110.27	2	43	96.21	0	7	120.26	0	24
25	1	Jessica Fox	Australia	89.18	0	1	-			146.47	50	25
26	4	Eva Terčelj	Slovenia	95.56	0	12	-			148.54	50	26
27	16	Natalia Pacierpnik	Poland	97.61	4	21	93.41	0	3	154.15	50	27
28	48	Miren Lazkano	Spain	97.55	0	20	-			161.75	52	28
29	18	Martina Wegman	Netherlands	93.20	0	8	-			163.33	50	29
30	40	Alena Marx	Switzerland	98.48	0	25	96.49	0	8	163.57	50	30
31	31	Alsu Minazova	RCF	152.43	50	47	97.30	2	11	did not advance
32	28	Romane Prigent	France	99.71	0	29	97.69	4	12
33	42	Kseniia Krylova	RCF	99.62	2	28	97.72	0	13
34	6	Luuka Jones	New Zealand	105.48	4	38	98.01	2	14
35	36	Hannah Thomas	New Zealand	103.90	0	34	98.15	2	15
36	39	Lois Betteridge	Canada	114.91	8	45	98.57	0	16
37	25	Laia Sorribes	Spain	97.65	0	22	99.46	0	17
38	34	Chiara Sabattini	Italy	99.91	2	30	99.83	0	18
39	33	Antonia Oschmautz	Austria	108.62	4	41	99.84	2	19
40	38	Courtney Williams	New Zealand	203.73	104	51	100.51	0	20
41	53	Olatz Arregui	Spain	104.89	2	37	100.90	4	21
42	51	Katja Bengeri	Croatia	104.77	4	36	104.10	2	22
43	35	Omira Estácia Neta	Brazil	103.27	2	32	107.54	4	23
44	41	Monika Mitasikova	Sweden	113.91	0	44	108.09	2	24
45	44	Chang Chu-Han	Chinese Taipei	108.91	2	42	108.64	4	25
46	49	Marcella Altman	USA	108.09	0	40	110.29	6	26
47	52	Aleksandra Stach	Poland	158.37	52	49	115.15	2	27
48	50	Lea Baldoni	Canada	103.54	2	33	118.09	6	28
49	57	Wu Ting-I	Chinese Taipei	372.30	254	57	130.03	4	29
50	45	Sara Timea Seprenyi	Hungary	227.16	106	52	132.03	4	30
51	37	Naemi Brändle	Switzerland	103.94	0	35	161.74	52	31
52	47	Iisa Maenpaa	Finland	143.55	4	46	180.26	56	32
53	46	Roxana Razeghian	Iran	382.35	256	58	184.05	56	33
54	55	Veronika Salaseviciute-Turbinova	Lithuania	197.70	16	50	233.63	68	34
55	43	Maartje Otten	Netherlands	298.11	202	55	265.03	156	35
56	54	Constanza Nobis	Chile	255.81	56	53	383.23	210	36
57	58	Iris Sommernes	Norway	352.90	154	56	390.43	156	37
58	56	Florencia Aguirre Gonzalez	Chile	262.85	110	54	DNF	256	38

References