The Men'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. It was the 41st edition of the event, and 80 athletes from 36 nations competed.

The event was won by Boris Neveu of France, winning his second title, after he led a French one-two-three in 2014. Italian underdog Marcello Beda won silver in his first international final, while Joan Crespo matched his result from 2019 with bronze.

Background Czech Jiří Prskavec entered the event a clear favourite, as the reigning World Champion, Olympic Champion and World No. 1. The host nation Slovakia fielded Olympic silver medallist Jakub Grigar. Czech Vít Přindiš came into the event having won the last two World Cup rounds en route to the overall World Cup title, also winning the European Championships and the extreme overall World Cup title. World No. 3 Joe Clarke also entered as a favourite, and with something to prove after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Andrej Málek was the last athlete to win a major ICF race on the Bratislava course, winning the second round of the 2019 World Cup, but he did not take part after retiring in 2020.

Competition format The Men'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 30 fastest men 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.

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.

Schedule All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) Date Time RoundThursday, 23 September 2021 10:03 Heats Run 1 12:32 Heats Run 2Saturday, 25 September 2021 10:08 Semifinal 12:40 Final

Results 2014 World Champion Boris Neveu topped the first heat with a clean 82.14, a day after winning the Team world title, ahead of Czechs Vít Přindiš and Vavřinec Hradilek. Sergei Maimistov won the second heat representing the Russian Canoe Federation, 1.15 off Neveu's first run time. Joe Clarke and Slovak Martin Halčin were the two highest ranked athletes to miss out on the semifinal. With both Germans Noah Hegge and Stefan Hengst setting equal times of 85.95 in the first heats run to finish 30th, 41 athletes progressed to the semifinal. 34 of the 41 who progressed to the semifinal did so with a penalty-free run.

The semifinal was won by home favourite Jakub Grigar, with a time of 85.16, ahead of Hegge and Marcello Beda, both making their first World Championship final. After the nation won 4 of the last 6 World Championship titles in this event, no Czech athletes qualified for the final, making this the first final without Czech participation since 2014. By finishing 9th in the semifinal, Brazilian Pedro Gonçalves became the first South American to progress to the World Championships final in this event since Thomas Bersinger placed 4th in 2014. This also marked the first time since 1995 that all three German athletes made the final.

Neveu became the 2021 K1M World Champion with a clean run of 83.92, almost 4 seconds clear of silver medalist Beda, while Joan Crespo won bronze at a second consecutive World Championship. The standard in the final was such that 7 of the athletes would have won a medal, had they completed the course in the same time as their semifinal.

Penalties are included in the time shown. The fastest time in each round is shown in bold. RankBibCanoeistNationHeatsSemifinalFinalRun 1Run 2TimeOrderTimeOrderTimeOrderTimeOrder 6 Boris Neveu 82.14 0 1 - 87.12 2 6 83.92 0 1 33 Marcello Beda 85.74 0 27 - 86.82 0 3 87.75 0 2 10 Joan Crespo 85.33 0 21 - 87.05 0 4 87.90 2 3 4 7 Giovanni De Gennaro 83.05 0 4 - 87.91 2 8 90.22 4 4 5 23 Stefan Hengst 85.95 2 30 - 88.66 2 10 90.68 2 5 6 30 Noah Hegge 85.95 0 30 - 86.25 0 2 91.18 4 6 7 12 Jakub Grigar 84.24 0 14 - 85.16 0 1 92.39 2 7 8 2 Peter Kauzer 83.20 0 5 - 87.47 4 7 136.10 52 8 9 5 Hannes Aigner 84.75 0 18 - 87.09 0 5 139.72 52 9 10 28 Pedro Gonçalves 87.62 0 39 85.97 2 7 88.15 0 9 141.22 54 10 11 1 Jiří Prskavec 84.87 0 19 - 88.71 0 11 did not advance 12 9 Mathieu Biazizzo 86.57 2 34 86.67 0 9 88.81 2 12 13 22 Pavel Eigel RCF 88.78 0 42 84.68 0 3 88.95 0 13 14 43 Adam Gonšenica 83.91 2 12 - 89.05 2 14 15 8 Lucien Delfour 85.38 2 22 - 89.07 2 15 16 21 Niko Testen 84.43 0 16 - 89.10 0 16 17 11 Dariusz Popiela 85.90 0 29 - 89.19 0 17 18 20 Lukas Werro 85.72 0 26 - 90.37 0 18 19 27 Benjamin Renia 83.23 0 6 - 91.19 4 19 20 37 Erik Holmer 85.50 0 24 - 91.44 2 20 21 16 David Llorente 83.83 0 11 - 91.83 4 21 22 24 Isak Öhrström 86.57 2 34 83.85 0 2 92.06 0 22 23 15 Bradley Forbes-Cryans 85.38 0 22 - 92.44 4 23 24 32 Mario Leitner 84.25 0 15 - 92.58 2 24 24 40 Mathieu Desnos 141.44 50 73 85.38 0 6 92.58 6 24 26 17 Michal Smolen 85.82 0 28 - 92.61 2 26 27 13 Felix Oschmautz 83.60 0 7 - 92.96 6 27 28 47 Sergei Maimistov RCF 88.26 2 41 83.29 0 1 93.48 0 28 29 49 Gabriel De Coster 84.73 2 17 - 93.78 2 29 30 39 Gelindo Chiarello 86.52 0 33 84.73 0 4 93.96 4 30 31 31 Finn Butcher 84.88 0 20 - 95.57 4 31 32 48 Nikita Gubenko RCF 86.44 2 32 86.32 0 8 95.80 4 32 33 42 Pau Echaniz 83.78 0 10 - 98.27 8 33 34 36 Christian De Dionigi 87.03 2 37 84.82 0 5 99.52 6 34 35 14 Martin Dougoud 83.71 0 9 - 136.54 52 35 36 4 Vít Přindiš 82.51 0 2 - 136.74 50 36 37 25 Christopher Bowers 84.19 0 13 - 138.21 50 37 38 19 Vavřinec Hradilek 82.85 0 3 - 139.35 52 38 39 26 Martin Srabotnik 85.55 0 25 - 139.37 52 39 40 41 Rafał Polaczyk 92.15 2 51 87.23 0 10 142.68 54 40 41 29 Callum Gilbert 83.60 0 7 - 154.51 56 41 42 34 Krzysztof Majerczak 141.86 50 74 87.74 0 11 did not advance 43 18 Martin Halčin 90.64 0 46 87.97 2 12 44 52 Alistair McCreery 91.40 0 50 88.21 0 13 45 59 Jordan Sherman 90.78 0 47 88.48 0 14 46 44 Fredrik Wahlén 89.18 0 45 88.82 0 15 47 3 Joe Clarke 86.71 2 36 90.11 0 16 48 70 Djanibek Temirgaliev 91.04 0 48 90.29 0 17 49 35 Kazuya Adachi 87.22 2 38 91.61 0 18 50 58 Kaelin Friedenson 96.17 6 53 92.16 0 19 51 53 Trevor Boyd 99.98 6 60 92.39 0 20 52 45 Guilherme Rodrigues 89.13 0 44 93.11 2 21 53 50 Martin Stanovsky 96.94 2 55 95.93 2 22 54 51 Yusuke Muto 87.73 0 40 96.25 6 23 55 60 Angel Petrushev 97.05 2 56 96.47 2 24 56 63 Milos Jevtic 103.72 2 63 96.48 2 25 57 62 Moritz Kremslehner 94.58 2 52 96.84 0 26 58 46 Zack Mutton 88.82 0 43 97.33 2 27 59 71 Barkamol Mirzakhamdamov 96.88 2 54 99.73 2 28 60 55 Mael Rivard 103.99 2 64 101.33 0 29 61 77 Niek Hendriks 99.02 4 58 102.20 4 30 62 76 Donovan Wewege 130.84 2 71 102.66 2 31 63 66 Ognjen Dimitrijevic 165.87 56 78 102.71 0 32 64 78 Martins Plaudis 114.96 4 66 103.99 0 33 65 64 Nour Ait Kaddour 99.91 2 59 105.99 6 34 66 67 Marko Dordevic 98.59 2 57 110.25 0 35 67 61 Gustas Malakauskas 103.12 4 61 110.57 0 36 68 56 Jean-Benoit Lemay 148.48 52 75 110.99 8 37 69 75 Vejas Pranskunas 121.38 6 69 115.14 6 38 70 54 Andraz Echeverria Olguin 103.70 6 62 124.87 2 39 71 69 Ricardo Fentanes 132.83 6 72 129.01 4 40 72 79 Patrick Kozma 358.59 204 79 129.05 4 41 73 38 Igor Tsviet 91.21 2 49 135.47 50 42 74 74 Alexandr Voroshilov 104.80 0 65 156.68 52 43 75 72 Samuel Muturi 118.74 4 67 162.87 2 44 76 57 Jun Yi Ong 120.84 8 68 168.30 54 45 77 80 Matteo-Alexander Olar 122.56 8 70 170.97 4 46 78 68 Ignacio Bakovic 158.86 52 77 205.64 100 47 79 65 Vilius Rasimavicius 155.76 56 76 211.65 106 48 80 73 Levis Peter Karanja 611.85 514 80 542.62 458 49

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