FORTH Canoe Club's David Florence defied the odds and a raging and foaming torrent to take slalom canoe silver in Beijing today.
The boy who once applied to be an astronaut had taken a giant leap of his own and was finally flying high. His silver – he missed out on gold by just under two seconds – takes Britain's medal tally to four, their most successful start to an Olympic c
ampaign since 1920.
And while team-mate and fellow Scot Campbell Walsh, a silver medallist in Athens, saw hopes sunk in his event, Florence soaked up the pressure with a careering and faultless final run in the C1 class.
"I'm delighted, a medal has been what I've been working towards for so long," he said.
"I did all I could do and I'm so happy with the result. I would have loved the gold but to say I'm disappointed doesn't accurately sum up my emotions at this moment."
Slovakia's Michal Martikan regained the title he won in Atlanta 12 years ago but Florence – who celebrated his 26th birthday on the eve of these Games – underlined himself as the name for the future.
Despite finishing second in last year's World Cup series, Florence has never won a medal at major championship level but he produced a searing second run to eclipse a host of the sport's big names. He incurred one penalty during this morning's first run, in which four of the 12 final qualifiers were eliminated.
At the halfway stage, Florence was more than a second and a half outside the gold medal position but just four tenths down on bronze.
But his time, with the addition of a two second penalty, was good enough to leave him in fourth position, ahead of his last charge down the course at Shunyi. And in a sport where one mistake can send you spinning from the top to the bottom of the leaderboard, he was always in the hunt.
After posting his impressive second run time, he sat anxiously waiting for his rivals to follow.
Poland's Krzystof Bieryt and Stanislav Jezek, of the Czech Republic, both faltered to guarantee him silver but the experienced Martikan was just too good.
"I crossed the line knowing it was good but I had an anxious few moments waiting to find out exactly where I'd finished," added Florence. "What's pleasing is I put down a really good final run in the most important time I've ever had to do it. I usually manage to build on my first run and I seem to do well in those pressure situations."
Despite being a late starter in canoeing, Florence insists he will soon start charting a path towards going one better in four years' time. "It's a great prospect to have the Games in your country and I'm equally fortunate to be in a high position in my chosen sport at the time," he added.
"I've put everything into this Games, it's been my entire focus for a long time. I've not had time to decide exactly what I do next but I'd be very surprised if I wasn't there (in London]." However, there was disappointment for training partner Walsh.
He had high hopes of delivering Britain's third gold, especially after capturing the European title against all his main Olympic rivals earlier this year.
But a disastrous performance saw him finish last in the final run qualifier of the K1 class. Walsh has spent weeks in Beijing getting used to the course and facilities at Shunyi but in this cruellest of Olympic sports, prior planning didn't help his performance.
Yesterday Walsh vowed to put a disappointing heats run – in which he qualified for the final as only the ninth fastest – behind him and he threw caution to the wind in a bid to qualify for the final run. But when he missed a gate midway down the course, costing him valuable seconds, he saw his name plummet from contention.
He finished 15th out of the 15 qualifiers and with only the top ten getting a second chance, his hopes were gone.
But today belonged to Florence – he may not have got to fly to the stars but he's become one of them in the world of canoeing.
The full article contains 714 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
