The skies over Budapest unloaded on the first event at these Championships drenching the 1 kilometer course just before race time. With tight turns, several athletes slipped and fell trying to compete at high speed. From the gun, returning silver medalist
Koki Ikeda went to the front, creating a gap over a pack led by
Salih Korkmaz and two-time defending champion
Toshikazu Yamanishi. On the fifth lap, Ikeda dropped a 3:49 to open up an 8-second lead. By the halfway point he had expanded that gap to 15 seconds. From that commanding lead, Ikeda began to show signs of weakness. Lap times in the low 3:50's became high 3:50's while the chase group was picking up speed. On the 15th lap,
Álvaro Martín put the hammer down, dropping a 3:43 lap and pulling next to Ikeda. Martín followed that with a 3:48 crushing Ikeda's enthusiasm.
Caio Bonfim,
Perseus Karlström and
Evan Dunfee were the next to pass Ikeda and set off in chase of Martín. Over the next three laps, Martín opened up 13 seconds over his chasers. He was able to celebrate on the final lap while Karlström was doing a 3:48 behind him to separate from Bonfim and capture silver. ==Records==