Tauranga kayaker Callum Gilbert recorded his best finish at an ICF World Cup canoe slalom series round, finishing 17th in Prague overnight.

The 20-year-old had a clear run with no penalties in his K1 semifinal run, crossing in 98.79secs. He was just 7secs off the fastest time and 1.3secs off making the top-10 final.

Tauranga kayaker Callum Gilbert, a good day in Prague. Photo: Supplied.

"It was wicked to see that, on a good day, I'm not too far away from mixing it with the big dogs," says Callum.

Czech paddlers Jiri Prskavec, Ondrej Tunka, Vavra Hradilek and Vit Prindis took the first four places in the final, with just 0.01 separating Prskavec and Tunka. 2012 Olympic silver medalist Hradilek and Prindis have already confirmed they're coming to New Zealand in November for the inaugural WhitewaterXL at the new Vector Wero Whitewater Park in Auckland, with Hradilek one of the event's ambassadors.

Gilbert, meanwhile, is turning his attention to next week's final world cup round in Slovenia, trying to complete a perfect record of making every semifinal this season.

"It's already been a great season and I'm really looking forward to the world cup final next week. I've been really keen to go back to Tacen since the first and last time I went there in 2013 - it's a really fun course and hopefully I can have another solid run to cap off my season."

Fellow K1 paddlers Mike Dawson and Finn Butcher will also race in Slovenia, along with K1 women Jane Nicholas and Kensa Randle and C1 paddler Benn Gibb.