Grigar, a two-time world junior champion, retained his under-23 K1 title in a time of 1 min 29.86sec at Divoka Voda-Cunovo.

The Slovak finished two seconds clear of Austria’s Mario Leitner, who took second in 1:31.89.

France’s Mathieu Desnos rounded out the podium in a time of 1:33.51.

“It feels pretty amazing,” Grigar said.

“It was pretty good today, I just sat on the water, I didn’t feel too good but I felt okay so I just tried to warm up as well as possible.

“For sure this is really special, winning the World Championships title in front of your home crowd, it’s really amazing.

"I’ve met a lot of people that told me they came to watch me, and they came for me.

"It was pretty awesome.”

Great Britain’s Mallory Franklin claimed her first major victory of 2017 in the women's C1.

She took first in the under-23 event in 1:49.08, with Czech Tereza Fiserova second in 1:52.25.

Franklin's compatriot and reigning senior European champion Kimberley Woods placed third in 1:53.95.

Pre-race favourite, Jessica Fox of Australia, picked up a 50sec penalty for missing a gate and finished 10th as a result.

Austria’s Felix Oschmautz was an impressive winner in the men's junior K1, posting a time of 1:32.18, while the women’s junior C1 title went to Germany’s Andrea Herzog in 1:56.20.

“I feel very lucky and so happy, I can’t believe it,” Herzog said.

“I was so nervous watching the other girls, but I knew I had done a good run and I thought maybe it could be a medal.”

There were more celebrations for the host country as Matus Gewissler and Juraj Skakala claimed the under-23 men’s C2 title in 1:43.20

The Czech Republic’s Vit Pohanka and Denis Wendl won the junior C2 gold in 2:10.46.