He finished the opening heat of the day in a time of 1min 24.06sec at the at Divoka Voda-Cunovo in Slovakia’s capital.

Desnos was followed by Germany’s Stefan Hengst and fellow Frenchman Pol Oulhen in the Under-23 event, the pair clocking 1:24.56 and 1:26.13 respectively.

Defending champion Jakub Grigar of Slovakia struggled during the heat, finishing in 11th position.

Having claimed one of the 30 qualification spots for the semi-final in the heat, the two-time world junior champion will be hoping for an improved performance.

"I didn’t really enjoy the run," Grigar said.

"I felt a little bit bad from the beginning until the end. I’m happy I made the semi-final, but hopefully it is going to be better on Friday."

The semi-final line-up was completed after the second heat, where 10 kayakers made the most of their second chance to advance.

Qualifying in the women’s under-23 C1 event also began today, with Austria’s Viktoria Folffhardt producing the fastest time, clocking 1:51.89.

She finished clear of two-time Olympic medallist  Jessica Fox after Australian picked up four penalties to finish on 1:53.57.

Britain’s Kimberley Woods rounded off the top three on 1:53.92.

In the junior events, the Czech Republic’s Tomas Lima achieved a clean time of 1:28.04 in the men’s competition.

He was followed by Austria’s Felix Oschmautz, who ended in 1:31.76

The Czech Republic’s Eva Rihova clocked 1:52.81 in the junior women’s C1 competition, with Poland’s Aleksandra Stach second in 1:55.13.