Pelly Vincent-Braun’s first races at the junior world championships didn’t quite go as planned.

The 16-year-old whitewater paddler is currently in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, where he is competing for Team Canada.

Vincent-Braun finished 37th out of 43 paddlers in C-1 (solo canoe) junior men’s category yesterday – his first competition at the event.

“Pelly raced hard and went all out,” his father, Trevor Braun, told the Star.

“He was doing very well on the top half of the course, moving fast and clean and getting through the tricky gates. However, he flipped mid-course which caused him to miss two gates – a 50-second penalty for each.”

On his second run, the Yukoner flipped again – this time a little further down the course, where he missed another pair of gates.

Slalom racing involves racing through a set of gates on a whitewater course. Courses typically involve more than 20 gates – including six upstream, with penalties of two seconds for touching them, or 50 seconds for a miss.

Vincent-Braun’s next competition at the 2015 International Canoe Federation World Championships will take place Saturday, when he paddles in the U23 men’s C-1 team event, which sees a team of three boats head down river simultaneously.

Vincent-Braun is one of two Canadian paddlers in the junior C-1 category, and one of 16 paddlers representing the country.

Other jurisdictions represented include Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

He is the first Yukon whitewater paddler to crack Canada’s national junior slalom roster.

The junior world championships feature 300-plus athletes from 45 different countries.