The number of nations still in the hunt for Karting Slalom gold narrowed to eight on Saturday after the first knockout round saw 16 nations face off at Circuit Paul Ricard. Both drivers from each team ran three laps of the slalom course, with their times (plus any penalties) added together to give a final result.
Poland beat Kosovo in the opening duel thanks to Emilia Rotko and Karol Krol, while Germany took a dominant win over Hong Kong China. Annika Spielberger was the fastest in this contest, running a 1m21.051s with no penalties, while teammate Sebastian Romberg also showed well to secure the biggest winning margin of the round.
Hungary overcame Spain thanks to its pairing of Adam Szabo and Lilla Horn, while Belgium easily beat Slovakia courtesy of Dario Pemov and Romy de Groote. Estonia (Martaliisa Meindorf & Jurgen Laansoo) toppled Belize, Netherlands (Naomi de Groot & Lukas Stiefelhagen) dispatched Albania, Ukraine (Ivan Kondratenko & Mariia Kravchenko) overcame Istral and Georgia (Nutsa Makkhatchadze Aleksandre Kajaia) edged Canada.
The latter was the closest contest of the first knockout phase, with 9.662s the difference between reaching the quarter finals and heading home. The same knockout process will be used on Sunday for the quarter and semi-finals, culminating in the final face-off.