Griga was disappointed not to be able to perform at his best in the final. He is having a difficult season.

After his Olympic final, Slovak canoeist Jakub Grigar regretted not being able to give his best performance in the competition, which could have won him a gold medal.

He finished sixth in Thursday’s K1 final, 1.99 seconds behind Italian champion Giovanni De Gennaro. Crucial for him was the top 14th goal, which caused problems for his qualifying.

A challenging season

Grigal has had a tough season with a shoulder injury. In addition, he qualified internally after Adam Gonsenica narrowly qualified at the world championships in London last year.

“The shoulder causes problems and this does not completely go away from day to day. We work hard every day and as far as the pain is concerned, it is completely tolerable. It does not limit us. My performances,” commented the 27-year-old Slovakian.

Despite these issues, he was able to advance to the Olympic final and displayed quality riding that might have been enough to get a medal if there hadn’t been any mistakes between the 13th and 14th goals.

“I was looking forward to the ride and despite the problems we had, I was ready physically, mentally and technically. I just went to enjoy myself and shine in the Olympic final, unfortunately the feeling at the finish line was completely different,” said Grigal. He has finished in the top six in three Olympics and won the silver medal in the last one, but this statistic did not help him mentally after the final.

High level

“It’s been eighteen years since I first got on the boat. At the beginning of my elite career, such as in Rio, I accepted defeat and thought I would learn and get better. But when it went on, I’m very sorry that I couldn’t show people how good I am and the people who support me, especially myself,” Grigal admitted after the final.

After the qualifying session, he said that he and De Gennaro and Tokyo champion Jiri Prskavec criticized the position of the 14th gate in the training. In the end, the Italian won the gold medal with the best result, and the Czech canoeist was eighth. Interestingly, none of the previous Olympic K1 medalists made it into the top five, as the German player Hannes Aigner did not even start.

Even Grigal himself pointed out that the level of the Paris final was very high, while in Tokyo he finished second with a gap of more than three seconds, and on Thursday he finished sixth with a gap of 1.99 seconds. “The competition was of high quality, the first three editions were very good. In Tokyo I got a medal with a bigger loss, and today 1.99 seconds meant sixth place. I think it was a pretty high-quality Olympic final,” commented the 27-year-old athlete.