A full day of heats has ended here at the 2011 ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Tacen. This is the first of the World Cup series this season and the competition will be ongoing from 24 – 26 June 2011.

Kauzer was 3.64 seconds faster than his closest rival in first run Andrea Romeo (ITA). Because he was so fast in the first run, he did not need to start in the second run, but still remained on top after all the competitors crossed the finish line.

In the second run Czech paddler Vavrinec Hradilek improved his time and was only 1.66 seconds behind Kauzer, while William Forsythe (AUS) was third at the end. Young Simon Brus (SVK) paddled very well at his first ever world cup race and was tenth after the first run, while at the end he managed to finish just at the middle of those who qualified for the semi-final - he was 20th. Interestingly enough, all the Slovenians in this category qualified for the semi-final; Jure Meglič (23rd) and Dejan Kralj (35th) secured themselves a place in Saturday's semifinal.

A Bronze medallist from last year's World Championships in Tacen, Meglič commented, "I was fast. Penalties were the only problem, but I was fast enough so that it didn't affect me much. I wanted to have a clean run, I hope I will manage to do so tomorrow. If I do not get any penalties, I will be among the fastest. I will do my best as always and with a good run I can make it to the top". Probably the biggest surprise of the K1m heats came with Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo, a medallist from the Beijing Olympics and Helmut Oblinger (AUT), 2005 European Champion in Tacen, both failing to advance to Saturday's semi-final.

In Men's C2 the famous Škantar cousins from Slovakia were the fastest, their compatriots Peter and Pavol Hochschorner were second, while Polish duo Marcin Pochwala and Piotr Szczepanski were third.

Canoeists did very well in the heats as well. In this category, the Slovenians also managed to qualify all their competitors into the next round of competition, the best Slovenian athlete was Benjamin Savšek who came in 7th:

I was pleased with my first heat, it turned out as I planned and I ranked amongst the first 30 which was my goal. The second heat did not go exactly as planned, but is was good as I already qualified after the first heat. For tomorrows' semifinals I will prepare better and my goal is to reach the final. My performance tomorrow will have to be a bit more composed as the course in Tacen does not allow too much rushing.

Matej Benuš (SVK) was the fastest, Stanislav Ježek (CZE) was second and David Florence (GBR) third.

Amidst extreme weather conditions, rain pouring constantly with thunder stormsrough the day K1 girls did very well to brave the weather. Austrian Violetta Oblinger Peters was the fastest, Jana Dukatova (SVK) was second, while another Austrian Corinna Kuhnle was third. All three of them advanced to the semifinal. A nice surprise for the local crowd was 17-year old Ajda Novak finishing 27th in her first world cup race. She got an opportunity to start after Nina Mozetič had to resign due to a wrist injury which will keep her off competitions for at least two weeks.

On Saturday Men's C1, Women's C1 and Men's K1 semi-finals and finals are scheduled, while on Sunday, Women's K1 and Men's and Women's C2 events wiill be decided. Kauser was 3.64 seconds faster than his closest rival in first run Andrea Romeo (ITA). Because he was so fast in the first run, he did not need to start in the second run, but still remained on top after all the competitors crossed the finish line.

For more updates and results visit www.sloka.si.