John Gregory - @gregiej | Sportscene - Sunday’s Cardiff World Cup K1W and C2 were always likely to be a nail-biter and the two finals were exactly that down to the very last boat.

A thrilling climax to the 1st World Cup race of 2013. The compact Cardiff course and conditions presented a challenge to the paddlers; however conditions were good for Sunday’s K1W and C2 finals. Here is a round-up of the remaining individual finals are weekend.

Cardiff World Cup K1W final medal positions

Lizzie Neave (GBR) produced a beautifully composed final to produce the fastest K1W run in either semi or final. Lizzie is the only paddler to win twice from the weekend’s heats, semi or final. As the remaining paddlers came down none to improve upon Lizzie excellent run, which meant big celebrations at the end among the British as world number 1 Jana Dukatova (SVK) had to settle for 8th place. Double Olympic Champion Elena Kaliska (SVK) out-performed her team-mate as did Cindy Poeschel from Germany. All the medalists had clear runs.

Cardiff World Cup C2 final medal positions

Pavol & Peter Hochschorner confirmed why they are the most successful canoe slalom paddlers of all time with a sensational 97.96 seconds. They improved by more than 3 seconds compared to their semi-final run on the same course.

Luka Bozic and Saso Taljat (SLO) were equally impressive here again in Cardiff following their silver medal last year, although despite the first sub 100 second run eventually had to settle for bronze. Last year’s event winner Florence and Hounslow (GBR) also found themselves one step lower on this year’s podium. Similar to the K1W all the C2 medalists and in fact top 5 crews had clear runs. London 2012 Olympic Champions had to settle for 4th place.

OVERALL

Individual category percentages

Medal Table (from individual race events)

GB Canoeing will be very pleased with four medals and topping the medal table at this early stage in a new Olympic cycle. It demonstrates a depth to the team, which includes many U23 paddlers. It is certainly a different team than that which historically dominated the K1M.

Only seven nations won medals of which 5 were European. More notable still was the absence of any non-European boats from either the C1M or C2 finals. There were no medals for the French although they clearly win notoriety for the loudest supporters. It was good to welcome paddlers from Brazil, Japan, Nigeria, Senegal as well as the more established paddling nations of Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Summary winners of heats, semi-final and final

As noted, Lizzie Neave was the only competitor to win both a heat, semi or final. This demonstrates that there is everything to play for a makes for exciting events when the standard is so high and tight.

Many of the teams pack up in Cardiff, Wales this afternoon to seek warmer racing conditions in Augsburg, Germany ready for World Cup 2 next weekend.

Download all results (Friday - Sunday)