Olympic champions Ricarda Funk and Jiri Prskavec are now also the inaugural European Games K1 canoe slalom champions after impressive performances on the Vistula River in Krakow.

Germany’s Funk only just sneaked into the women’s K1 final, snatching the last available position, but then set a time in the final that could not be matched, even with a two-second penalty for a gate touch.

Funk added the European Games title to her Olympic and world championship crowns.

“It's the European Games and such a special event for us, canoe slalom is here for the first time

"This course was technically really challenging. To be honest I was not really sure what will happen and I said to myself let's have fingers crossed.

"My performance was done, I could not change anything, I was just sitting here and waiting, looking at what the girls are doing. But I knew I can be happy with my run, regardless of the result."

The fastest raw time on the course was set by local hope Klaudia Zwolinska, but she had two gate touches and four seconds in penalties, pushing her to second behind Funk, just 1.97 seconds adrift. The bronze went to Czech Tereza Fiserova.

Prskavec also added a European Games title to his Olympic and World Championship honours. It’s also the sixth time the Czech has become European champion.

"It is beautiful. I did not expect the European Games to be so big,” Prskavec said.

“I think we all felt more pressure than at a usual European Championships. I am happy with the performance and especially with the final. It was a hard position to start from, but I finished with a clean and nice run with some risky moves.”

Switzerland’s Martin Dougoud followed his strong heats and semi-final form with a silver medal, while 2016 Olympic champion Joe Clarke, who also only just managed to sneak into the final, set the fastest raw time, but had a two-second penalty pushed him to bronze.