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

Great Britain's Joe Clarke took gold in the men's kayak K1 slalom final at the Rio 2016 Olympics on Wednesday after finishing the Deodoro Olympic Whitewater Stadium course with a score of 88.53.

Peter Kauzer took silver for Slovenia, while Jiri Prskavec of the Czech Republic nudged in front of German contender Hannes Aigner to snatch the bronze medal for himself.

Planet Canoe provided a rundown of the final scores in full, with Clarke, Kauzer and Prskavec accounting for the podium places:

Clarke was third-but-last to go in the final after qualifying from the semi with one of the finest scores witnessed at Rio 2016, and he immediately wrestled the lead from former score leader Kauzer.

Here's how the overall medal table looked after the result:

Recap

Hopes were high for Clarke after he barrelled through his semi-final, but few might have anticipated just how cool and collected the 23-year-old would be upon making his Olympic debut.

The victory secured Great Britain's second gold medal of the Summer Games, and the Times' Owen Slot conjured up a very suitable new moniker for the breakthrough star:

Clarke sailed into the slalom final earlier on Wednesday after producing a spectacular performance in the semi, where he notched a superb run of 86.85, joint-best alongside Italy's Giovanni De Gennaro.

The Briton showed particularly strong resolve to bounce back for such a strong second semi-final run, too, considering he scored a dismal 135.89 in his first attempt, by far the worst of any final qualifier.

It was an agonising manner in which Kauzer surrendered the gold that was so nearly his, too, holding the lead for all of three minutes before Clarke completed a run that wasn't far from perfect.

German outlet DW Sport noted just how overjoyed the Slovenian was to grasp pole position, albeit only temporarily, and it was only a slim matter of time before the top prize slipped out of his grasp:

Prskavec also had his shot at the gold, and he too held a lot of promise after entering the decider with the seventh-best semi-final score of the 15 kayakers to make it to the final.

Whereas Clarke and Kauzer were close to flawless in their runs, the Czech competitor was let down by the penalties he incurred hitting the date, as illustrated by Alexander Abnos of Sports Illustrated:

The home crowd showed almighty support for Brazil native Pedro Da Silva, who grasped the lead for himself early in the final before German giant Aigner took it as his own midway down the order.

Slovakian Jakub Grigar, who qualified just behind Clarke, had a confident wink for the cameras before going last in the order, clearly hopeful of his chances, but he was ultimately unable to claim a spot on the podium.