Sideris Tasiadis

Tokyo – Slovenian canoeist Benjamin Savšek convincingly won the men’s C-1 slalom on Monday to earn the first gold medal for Slovenia at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the second overall medal for the country.

Leipzig – Slovenia’s Benjamin Savšek placed third at the second race of the ICF Canoe-Kayak Slalom World Cup in Germany’s Markkleeberg, being outperformed only by French Denis Gargaud Chanut and German Sideris Tasiadis. The other Slovenian athlete in the finals, Luka Božič, finished 10th.

Putting in an almost perfect final run, Savšek beat the home favourite Martin Thomas by 79 hundredths of a second. German Sideris Tasiadis trailed more than two seconds behind in third.

This is the second European champion title for the 32-year old Slovenian canoeist after he secured gold at the championship in Markkleeberg in 2015.