The Slovakian cousins proved dominant once more as they set a time of 108.29sec with zero penalties in the final, which could not be beaten by any of the nine other pairs.

in second place were Germany's Robert Behling and Thomas Becker who, after they were handed a two second penalty, finished in 110.95 which was 2.66 seconds slower than the leaders.

Finishing narrowly in third position were the Czech Republic's Jakub Jane and Ondřej Karlovský.

They touched gate number 11 and 22 but managed to sneak into third place, 0,01 seconds before the French pair of Pierre Picco and Hugo Biso.

"We did well, no big mistakes on the course and mostly after the semi-finals we knew where we could go faster, which we managed," said the Skantars.

"It is also a great result, because we have not really trained after the Olympics due to other responsibilities."

Rio 2016 bronze medallists Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu  Péché of France could only manage a disappointing seventh place after a 54-second penalty cost them dearly and positioned the French pair 55.66 seconds behind the leaders.

Elsewhere, in the day's other final Germany's Ricarda Funk won the women's K1 event.

The 24-year-old set a time of 108.59, including a six-second penalty.

"I was not expecting to have three touches and then after those penalties didn’t think I could finish first, I raced very fast and I’m really happy despite my mistakes." said an emotional Funk after the race.

The closest challenger to Funk was Brazilian Ana Satila of Brazil, 2.16 seconds behind after she picked up a four-second penalty.

Earlier in the day, there was a huge surprise as Australian Jessica Fox, the Olympic K1 bronze medallist, had troubles in her qualifying run as she struggled at gate number 10, as well as gates 15 and 18. 

As a result she finished in 17th place and failed to reach the final. 

There was also a huge shock in the final involving Slovakia's Jana Dukátová. 

The three-time overall winner of the World Cup missed gate number 23 after an impressive run which, due to penalties, meant she finished in ninth place.