The men's C-1 1000 metres event was an open-style, individual canoeing event conducted as part of the Canoeing at the 1968 Summer Olympics program. Heat times were given in tenths of a second (0.1) while the semifinal and final events were given in hundredths of a second (0.01) in the official report.
Twelve competitors were entered, but eleven took part. Held on October 22, the top three in each heat move on to final with the others relegated to the semifinal.
| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | align=left athlete | Ivan Patzaichin | width=80 | 4:28.3 | QF | |
| 2. | align=left athlete | Ove Emanuelsson | 4:32.4 | QF | ||
| 3. | align=left athlete | Christopher Hook | 4:34.9 | QF | ||
| 4. | align=left athlete | Vitaly Galkov | 4:35.4 | QS | ||
| 5. | align=left athlete | Boris Lyubenov | 4:36.2 | QS | ||
| 6. | align=left athlete | Félipe Ojeda | 4:47.3 | QS | ||
| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | align=left athlete | Detlef Lewe | 4:24.5 | QF | ||
| 2. | align=left athlete | Tibor Tatai | 4:25.5 | QF | ||
| 3. | align=left athlete | Jiří Čtvrtečka | 4:28.3 | QF | ||
| 4. | align=left athlete | Andreas Weigand | 4:30.0 | QS | ||
| 5. | align=left athlete | Tetsumasa Yamaguchi | 4:33.3 | QS | ||
| - | align=left athlete | Jürgen Harpke | Did not start |
In the official report, Emanuelsson's first name is listed as Sten.
Only the five canoeists who did not advance from the first round competed in the semifinal. Taking place on October 24, the top three finishers advanced to the final.
| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | align=left athlete | Vitaly Galkov | width=80 | 4:34.17 | QF | |
| 2. | align=left athlete | Boris Lyubenov | 4:35.82 | QF | ||
| 3. | align=left athlete | Andreas Weigand | 4:37.11 | QF | ||
| 4. | align=left athlete | Félipe Ojeda | 4:43.20 | |||
| 5. | align=left athlete | Tetsumasa Yamaguchi | 4:54.61 |
The final took place on October 25.
| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left athlete | Tibor Tatai | 4:36.14 | ||||
| align=left athlete | Detlef Lewe | 4:38.31 | ||||
| align=left athlete | Vitaly Galkov | 4:40.42 | ||||
| 4. | align=left athlete | Jiří Čtvrtečka | 4:40.74 | |||
| 5. | align=left athlete | Boris Lyubenov | 4:43.43 | |||
| 6. | align=left athlete | Ove Emanuelsson | 4:45.80 | |||
| 7. | align=left athlete | Ivan Patzaichin | 4:49.32 | |||
| 8. | align=left athlete | Andreas Weigand | 4:50.42 | |||
| 9. | align=left athlete | Christopher Hook | 4:55.88 |
Tatai qualified as a reserve for the Hungarian team, but won decisively after driving the other finalists to exhaustion.