Chasing the time of 92.12 set by Slovakia, the U23 men's kayak trio went out in the final with intent and set the quickest first split by some distance.

It was a near perfect run from Leaver (Edinburgh Schools), Haylett (Holme Pierrepont) and Dickson (CR Cats) as they posted the first sub 90 second time of the day in 88.60, also setting the first clean run off the final.

Italy and Spain couldn't match the Brits' run, but a storming performance from the French trio which included an early touch of gate 1, pipped the British team to gold by 0.51 seconds.

Their time was enough, however, for Britain to win their first World Championship medal in the U23 men's kayak since 2017.

Delighted with the silver medal, Haylett said:

“We're really happy to win the silver medal today.

“It's a great start kicking off with the boys. It's always a great way to start building into a Championships with a medal.

“For Jonny and I, it's our last year as U23s, whilst Sam has a few more years yet, so it's great to round off our final Worlds with a medal and provide the guys next year with a good bib number.

“It's to get some early consistency and for all three of us to paddle smoothly. 95% of that we're struggling to find fault with our run which shows how strong the French team's run was."

Lee Valley trio Darcey McMullins, Zoe Blythe-Shields and Arina Kontchakov were incredibly close to reaching the junior women's canoe team. Early down in the final, the team had some time to wait, but a strong Czechia run last off pushed them out of the medals and into fourth.

Jonah Hanrahan (Independent), Gwion Williams (Llandysul) and Oscar Wyllie (Breadalbane) set the standard in the junior men's kayak team final to go top of the standings early on.

A strong time of 99.18, including six seconds of penalties, was only beaten by a handful of teams which pushed the Brits into sixth. Last to go off in their final, the U23 women's kayak team of Ellis Miller (Lee Valley), Macy Kang (Holme Pierrepont) and Lois Leaver chased a sub 100 seconds set by Germany.

Eight seconds of touches accumulated in the first eight gates cost the team time as they finished sixth in 112.75.

Twice on the water for day one, Zoe Blythe-Shields and Kontchakov teamed up with Sofia Alfer (Wydean) for the junior women's kayak team final.

The trio finished seventh overall as they clocked 117.15 including four gate touches.

There were eighth place finishes for both the U23 and junior men's canoe teams.

With the British team winning World silver in 2023, Kurts Adams Rozentals (Stafford & Stone) joined up with Luc Royle (Stafford & Stone) and Ed McDonald (Holme Pierrepont) as the trio finished in 101.70 including two early touches.

Juniors Lewis Arden (Manvers), Isaac Wright (Stafford & Stone) and Will Kettle (Lee Valley) lost time and picked up ten seconds of penalties in their pursuit of the podium, to finish in 122.90.

A missed gate late on sadly ruled the U23 women's canoe team of Ellis Miller, Joanna Blythe-Shields (Lee Valley) and Rachel Ellis (Lee Valley) on a medal.

The trio's time was good enough to medal, but late gate penalties put them 11th overall.

This article was originally published on the Paddle UK website.