Britain's 15-year-old Lili Bryant won the girls K1 event, on a day when athletes from lesser known canoeing nations dominated.

Underlining the growing global reach of canoeing, athletes from every continent, including Africa, Oceania and the Americas, were represented in the semi-finals of today's competition.

Koetsuk was new to the sport of slalom when he took part in a talent identification programme in Thailand in 2017.

But he stormed to victory over New Zealand’s Finn Anderson in cold and wet conditions on the Barcelona course, finishing in 1min 26.46sec.

Both Koetsuk and Anderson - who finished in 1:28.88 - had ground to make up after the sprint section of the competition on Thursday, when they finished 50th and 40th respectively.

The results of both competitions are added together to give each athlete their overall ranking.

Bryant was 58th after the sprint in the girls K1 on Thursday (April 12), but felt much more comfortable in the slalom event, beating American Ria Sribar in the final as she recorded 1:16.58.

Sribar was only marginally better in the sprint, finishing 51st.

But she came round in 120.08

Bryant now has to prepare for the girls’ C1 slalom tomorrow, one of the few athletes to do both disciplines.

"I had no expectations, I certainly didn’t imagine I would finish top eight or even win," Bryant said.

"The [K1] sprint wasn’t the result I wanted but it was still fun."

The top five for the girls featured three Europeans, an American and China’s Li Shumei, while the boys’ top eight featured three athletes from Asia, two from Europe, and one each from Africa, Oceania and the Americas.