Olympic Canoeing 2016: Tuesday Slalom Medal Winners, Order, Times and Results

France's Denis Gargaud Chanut won the 2016 Summer Olympics canoeing men's single C1 discipline with a time of 94.17 seconds on Tuesday. 

The former world champion finished less than a second ahead of silver-medal winner Matej Benus of Slovakia, with Takuya Haneda of Japan finishing in the third spot.

The Deodora course would challenge the paddlers' versatility, agility and strength, with six awkward upstream gates to navigate. 

Here is a breakdown of the results from Tuesday's action:

Position	Nationality	Name	Time
Gold	France	Denis Gargaud Chanut	94.17
Silver	Slovakia	Matej Benus	95.02
Bronze	Japan	Takuya Haneda	97.44
4	Czech Republic	Vitezslav Gebas	97.57
5	Germany	Sideris Tasiadis	97.90
6	Slovakia	Benjamin Savsek	99.36
7	USA	Casey Eichfeld	99.69
8	Spain	Ander Elosegi	101.27
9	Portugal	Jose Carvalho	105.74
10	Great Britain	David Florence	109.00

Recap

Casey Eichfeld of the United States was the first in the order to test himself on the 242-metre course. Less than an hour after his semi-final outing, the American was handed a four-second penalty after catching the edge on Gate 17 and Gate 22. 

He eventually crossed the line in 99.69 seconds, shrieking in excitement, but Eichfeld would not be in the medals contest with those two errors.

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Jose Carvalho of Portugal also endured a tough time on the man-made water feature, as he suffered four penalties. 

Benus was third to take to the water. One of the favourites for the top spot on the podium, the dominant figure produced a slick display, with deep, long strokes.

With six upstream gates for the paddlers to manoeuvre, Benus produced an impressive showing to spin on the spot at 19 before crossing the line 4.67 seconds ahead of Eichfeld, without suffering any penalties.

The hopes of Great Britain fell to world champion David Florence, but two significant errors early on in his run ended any ambitions of a medal. After getting off to a strong start, the Brit was caught out by the strength of the rapids and lost momentum, eventually crossing the line in over 109 seconds. 

BBC Scotland sport reporter Kheredine Idessane saw Florence's medal ambitions falter:

Haneda—one of the classiest paddlers in the field—recorded a time 2.42 seconds behind Benus. Turning tightly around the poles, the Japanese athlete lacked the raw power of his Slovakian rival but placed himself in contention.

Vitezslav Gebas of the Czech Republic held his own in the midsection of the tricky Deodora course, working hard to burst across the line.

Benjamin Savsek, another Slovakian, was seventh out of the gate and had been expected to challenge his compatriot for the top spot on the rostrum. A penalty on the 14th seemed to end his hopes of gold, and that was further underlined after another mistake in the closing stages.

OLIVIER MORIN/Getty Images

Gargaud Chanut, the world champion from 2011, was slow to get into his stride but took a beautiful approach into the seventh gate. Less aggressive than most, the experienced paddler was smooth in his execution and was calm throughout. Up in the final split, the Frenchman burst over the line with less than a second lead.

Team World Blog noted how the battle between the two countries had extended from their semi-final meet:

In the penultimate run of the day, Spain's Ander Elosegi suffered a penalty on the first gate of the course to hand him a blow early on in the contest. He trailed by 1.67 seconds at the halfway point before picking up another two-second penalty on the difficult Gate 19, eventually crossing the line in 101 seconds. 

In the final run of the day, Germany's Sideris Tasiadis unleashed from the starting blocks but clipped the right-sided pole on Gate 9. He lost time going off-course midway through his run and could never recover and eventually crossed the line 3.73 seconds behind the top spot, finishing in fifth place.

CARL DE SOUZA/Getty Images

Gargaud Chanut, 29, took home the gold medal in the C1 discipline after a fine performance, using his experience and technical strokes to attack the water and finish the day with a 0.85-second lead over Benus in second, with Haneda rounding out the medal positions.