Very early on it became clear that a momentary lapse in concentration when watching the canoeists head down the Lee Valley Whitewater Course, which became the first London 2012 legacy venue to stage a World Championships, would see you miss a penalty being awarded, a capsize or in many cases a stunning recovery.

If you needed to concentrate as a spectator those levels were clearly amplified for the canoeists themselves. Having watched the forerunners, several up and coming British stars, negotiate their path from start to the finish moments before they were given a very small window of opportunity to plot their own way down what is considered to be one of the most challenging courses in the world.

Rehearsing how they wanted to tackle the route was one thing, actually pulling it off appeared to be an entirely different proposition.

It was a key aspect of what makes the event a draw for spectators, as when an athlete appeared to be in complete control ahead of their rivals' split times, they were never far away from having to completely re-adjust or from falling completely out of contention.

This was made clear extremely early on in the Championships when Australia’s Jessica Fox and Slovakia’s Michal Martikán failed to qualify directly to the semi-finals of the women’s K1 and men’s C1 events respectively, despite boasting several world titles to their names.

While the duo both recovered to advance from their second heats, it displayed how the sport has a huge mental side to it, with the ability to think quickly and make alterations which could either save or see the canoeists' runs falter being almost as important as the physical aspect of the sport.

Perhaps the best example of this was in the men’s K1 event in which Spain’s Samuel Hernanz reacted within seconds to one half of his paddle snapping off during his run, before most of the packed crowd had even been aware of the incident.

Although his run was severely hindered and his semi-final hopes dashed, Hernanz highlighted the adaptability and skill of the canoeists.

Naturally dramatic moments such as the one experienced by Hernanz were able to excite a crowd, who were able to enjoy the action outdoors in near perfect weather for four of the five days of competition.

With it being the last World Championships prior to the Rio 2016 Olympics it was also interesting to watch and soak up the kind of atmosphere that might be present at next year’s Games, where action will be held in the Deodoro Olympic Park.

For some, the best way to follow the event was to run alongside the canoeists from the top of the course to the bottom, yelling words of encouragement. However, a vast section of grandstand near the finish was made up of Slovakian supporters armed with air horns and drums which created a loud and boisterous atmosphere to welcome their athletes across the line.

As a completely outdoor event it would not come as a surprise if next year a leaf is taken out of the Slovakians' book and competition takes place in front of a loud and party crowd.

However, a potential downside is that, judging from the World Championships, it looks likely to be a mostly European battle for the medals. On Saturday when the men’s C2 and women’s K1 events took place, both of which will appear at next year’s Games, only five of the 40 boats were non-European with none making the final.

While there was an improvement on the final day of the Championships when 16 out of the 91 crews qualified for either the men’s and women’s C1 or men’s K1 semi-finals, only five made it through to the finals.

Although Australia’s Fox went on to win the women’s C1 event, which won’t appear at Rio 2016, for the third consecutive time, and the United States’ Casey Eichfeld secured bronze in the men’s C1 competition, Europe clearly are the dominant force in the sport.

One of the major reasons is likely to be dedicated canoe slalom facilities which many of the European nations have at their disposal, with Britain now boasting the Lee Valley Whitewater Centre while France and Germany have facilities at Pau and Augsburg respectively.

In fact, the full five event World Cup series was held in Europe this year, highlighting their huge advantage with facilities and making it unsurprising that the continent's athletes were dominating the medal events at the World Championships.

Unlike the International Canoe Federation’s other discipline, canoe sprint, readdressing the balance of power is unlikely to be an easy fix. In some ways then it makes it a shame that National Olympic Committees will only be able to have one boat in each slalom event at Rio, in which the men’s C1, C2, K1 and women’s K1 events will be contested.

With several nations boasting multiple contenders for the podium the fact that several won’t be appearing at the Games seems to be reducing the quality of the field for the Olympics, rather than allowing fans to watch the world’s top athletes compete, in what would likely be a more exciting and unpredictable competition.

Having had the good fortune to also be present for the duration of the World Judo Championships last month, it was also interesting to note that several of the silver medallists in various divisions would not be at next year’s Games with the gold medallist, also from their country, likely to take the sole spot available.

While it makes perfect sense to have quotas in place to keep the number of athletes down and increase the number of nations competing across the sports at Olympic level, I can’t help but feel a slight disappointment that the exceptionally high standards of competition I witnessed at both World Championships will be restricted somewhat next year.