Reach for the stars

Published on Saturday 9 August 2008 20:14

WHEN IT comes to aiming for the stars, there is the meteoric and the metaphoric. Having failed in his quest to manage the former, David Florence is aiming to achieve the latter by fulfilling his ambition of winning Olympic gold.

One of three Scottish canoe slalomists representing Britain in Beijing, along with Campbell Walsh and Fiona Pennie, the mathematical physics graduate from Nottingham University was also one of 10,000 people who answered a recent advert to become an astronaut.

"The European Space Agency were looking for four astronauts," he said. "It was worth a try but I didn't get accepted. I found out just before I came out here. I would have loved to have been accepted but I wasn't too upset because I had always known it was a ridiculous long shot.

"I would apply again but I don't know if I will get the opportunity. The opportunity doesn't come about that often. The last time was 1992 and this is the first time ever that non test pilots could apply.

"It would have been interesting but this is my real ambition, the culmination of 11 years' training and something I have dreamt about all that time. I'm looking forward to it."

His maths and physics background helped foster his interest in space but, underlining how highly he prioritises his Olympic ambitions, he reveals it was only ever taken to degree level to assist with his canoeing.

"I was determined to get into Nottingham University because that's where the canoeing National Training Centre is and I chose to do mathematical physics because I had studied maths and physics at school and done well so I thought that would give me the best chance of being accepted. I didn't really care what I studied, I just wanted to get into Nottingham because I knew I had to train at the national centre if I wanted to have success. I've been very serious about my canoeing since I first started."

It was a route already taken by his current team-mate Walsh. A few years older, he too recognised the need to set up base in Nottingham and also studied mathematical physics there. Now the pair will compete on the same day and are hoping they can both return with a medal, preferably gold.

Walsh took silver in Athens and would love to go one better this time around in the K-1 event in the white water of the Beijing canoe venue.

Minus the excitement and nerves of his first Olympics, Walsh is confident, but knows he will need to be at the top of his game in a sport where the slightest lapse can sink a top contender. "It's the nature of our sport that you can paddle as well as you can and still three others may have a blinding day but I would like to think that I will be in there challenging for gold on the final run."

Aberdonian Florence goes in the C-1 category on the same day and believes that all three Scots have what it takes to win medals.

"The good thing is that we have all won a medal at big events on more than one occasion so we know we could do it again. I'm not the favourite for gold but I do have a chance. There are two stronger favourites, the Frenchman Tony Estanguet and Michal Martikan of Slovakia. But this sport can be unpredictable and whereas in other sports if someone is winning all year round then chances are they will win gold, in slalom that's not the case. We really have to deliver on the day and it is a very technical sport so there are a number of people who could be in with a shout. I am pleased because I have been paddling consistently well but even then the fact I have two medals this year as well as a 37th place finish shows how it can vary. I would love to pick up a gold medal and for me the thing which does give me confidence is the fact I have picked up gold in the past when these guys have been competing so I know I am capable."

It is all far cry from his first competitive race, in 1997. "I came last! But that didn't put me off, it made me more determined because I had really enjoyed the race but I wanted to do better.

"When I was at school in Edinburgh, the Union Canal was the only central Edinburgh venue where I could train, but I always wanted to do slalom (rather than flatwater].

"My dad and uncle paddled competitively and I was fascinated by the idea so at the weekends I would go up to Perthshire for the whitewater because that's what I found exciting. I took it very seriously."

The serious work in Beijing will get under way tomorrow, with his heats and the final the following day, but he has already had a memorable Olympics thanks to his 26th birthday. It fell in the day of the opening ceremony and having accepted a cake from his team-mates on the way from the canoe venue to the Bird's Nest Stadium, he joked that he was about to enjoy the "biggest birthday party I'm ever likely to have", with thousands packed into the stadium and a worldwide audience.