France's Rio 2016 C1 champion Denis Gargaud Chanut struggled to reach tomorrow's semi-finals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Barcelona ©Getty Images

All four Rio 2016 gold medallists qualified safely for this weekend's main action at the International Canoe Federation's final Canoe Slalom World Cup of the season – but it was far from easy for Britain's K1 champion Joseph Clarke and France's C1 winner Denis Gargaud Chanut.

Clarke and Chanut both required second runs to progress to tomorrow's semi-finals at the La Seu d’Urgell slalom course, where the sport made its Olympic return 25 years ago at the Barcelona Games.

Spain's Olympic K1 champion Maialen Chourraut gave the local fans plenty to cheers about when she qualified sixth fastest behind Germany's series leader Ricarda Funk in the women's competition.

All three individual Olympic champions missed last weekend's penultimate World Cup in Ivrea but, with the 2017 World Championships just three weeks away, they arrived hoping to produce some positive performances over a weekend that will see this year's World Cup winners crowned.

Spain’s Olympic K1 champion Maialen Chourraut qualified steadily for tomorrow's semi-finals at the concluding ICF Slalom World Cup of the season on her home waters at the La Seu d’Urgell slalom course in Barcelona ©Getty Images
Spain’s Olympic K1 champion Maialen Chourraut qualified steadily for tomorrow's semi-finals at the concluding ICF Slalom World Cup of the season on her home waters at the La Seu d’Urgell slalom course in Barcelona ©Getty Images

While none of the Rio gold medallists, including Slovakia's C2 champions and cousins Ladislav and Peter Škantár, are in the running for the World Cup title, the competition is close.

Double points are on offer this weekend in Spain, throwing all the events wide open.

Only Funk appears to have sealed a title with three wins from four races this season giving her 170 points.

The German is chasing a fourth consecutive World Cup title, and recorded a perfect run of 102.37sec to finish ahead of Olympic silver and bronze medallist, Jessica Fox of Australia, on 103.28.

Clarke made a disastrous return to racing, picking up 100 seconds in penalties for missing two gates on his first run, but then made amends on his second journey down the course to qualify comfortably.

The fastest qualifier in the K1 was France's Boris Neveu on 91.52, in front of Czech Jiri Prskavec on 92.04.

Gargaud Chanut was 28th after his first run behind Slovakia's Alexander Slafkovsky, before finding his form on the second run.

Slafkovsky's time of 97.37 was 0.70 seconds quicker than series leader Sideris Tasiadis of Germany on 98.07.

Local athlete Nuria Vilarrubla showed the benefit of local knowledge to qualify fastest in the women's C1, posting a time of 114.07 with Austria's Viktoria Wolffhardt second on 114.46.

In the men's C2, the Skantar cousins picked up six seconds in penalties, the most in the field, but still qualified 10th for the semi-finals behind French pair Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche.

The French duo recorded a time of 106.59, in front of Czech Republic's Jonas Kaspar and Marek Sindler in 107.45.