Brett Heyl (Bethesda, Md.) was the top finisher in the men’s kayak class for the United States, finishing a respectable 16th place in the world. Heyl had a smooth run, but finished a mere four seconds off of the leader in the semi-final. The competition was extremely tight, with the top 20 competitors separated by only 5 seconds.

Scott Parsons (Bethesda, Md.) was the next best finishing US boat, coming in 26th. Parsons said he went into the first gate a little off of his preferred line and never felt in his groove the rest of the way. Scott Mann (Bryson City, N.C.) had an extremely fast semi-final run until he got to the bottom portion of the course, where he approached a gate from the wrong angle and ended up having to loop around back to make it. Mann finished in 35th.

Sunday was a very interesting final in the kayak class, where a few of the biggest names in the sport failed to even make the final. In the end, Fabian Doerfler of Germany pulled out the win by nearly three seconds over the defending champion Fabien Lefevre of France. Peter Cibak of Slovakia won the silver.

Men’s double canoe was also contested on Sunday—a class in which the US did not field an entry. The German boat of Bahmann and Senft were the class of the field, winning by more than four and a half seconds. The Slovakian boat of Kuban and Olejnik was second, and the German boat of Becker and Henze was third.

The World Championships will be wrapped up on Monday with the team competition, where sets of 3 paddlers from each country will paddle down the course at the same time. Timing begins when the first paddler passes through the start gate and stops when the last paddler crosses the finish line.
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