Michal Smolen finished in first place in today's heats of the men's K1 category ©Getty Images

The International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Slalom World Cup Final began today as athletes took to the water aiming to qualify for tomorrow's semi-finals at Tacen in Ljubijana in Slovenia.

America's Michal Smolen, 10th at last week's World Cup event in Prague, finished in first place in today's heats of the men's K1 category.

Smolen finished in 100.90sec, 0.21 second ahead of Rio 2016 silver medallist Peter Kauzer of Slovenia, who also progressed.

The Czech Republic's Vít Přindiš rounded off the top three in a time of 101.58.

Olympic silver medallist and winner of last week's C1 World Cup event, Slovakia's Matej Beňuš, qualified in first place in the same category with a time of 106.01.

Finishing in second was American and three-time Olympian Casey Eichfeld.

Eichfeld posted a penalty-free run to finish only 0.85 seconds behind Beňuš.

French duo Nicolas Peschier and Pierre-Antoine Tillard both also made it through in third and fourth place respectively in times of 107.20 and 107.64.

Elsewhere, Slovakia's Ladislav and Peter Škantár successfully made it through to the semi-finals of the C2.

The cousins, winners of an Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016, finished the heats in seventh place in a time of 120.74, 3.41 seconds behind the first place French duo of Pierre-Antoine Tillard and Edern Le Ruyet.

Tillard and Ruyet completed the course in 117.33, 0.41 seconds ahead of second place and fellow Frenchmen Hugo Biso and Pierre Picco.

Australia's Jessica Fox progressed in both the women's K1 and C1 events today ©Getty Images
Australia's Jessica Fox progressed in both the women's K1 and C1 events today ©Getty Images

In the women's competitions, Nuria Vilarrubla of Spain finished top of the standings in the women's C1 heats in a time of 127.79.

She finished 4.45 seconds ahead of second place Australian Jessica Fox, winner of the C1 World Championships in London last year.

Britain's Mallory Franklin, third at last weekend's Prague World Cup event, finished in third place once again today in 133.27.

Fox also competed in the women's K1 event today, topping the standings to easily progress to the next round.

Fox finished in a time of 114.99, despite incurring two penalties, narrowly beating home favourite Eva Terčelj of Slovenia by 0.02 of a second.

Slovakia' Jana Dukátová finished the heats in third place in a time of 116.93.

Tomorrow's schedule is due to feature the C1 men's, C1 women's and K1 men's semi-final and final races and the slalom cross event.