Canoeing: Florence beats the rush hour

Edinburgh canoeist David Florence overcame a change of schedule and a doubled workload to qualify in two events at the World Slalom Championships in Tacen, Slovenia.

The C1 Olympic silver medallist was originally due to compete in the C2 heats, but rising water levels at the Sava River saw today's C1 qualifiers brought forward by 24 hours.

The Forth Canoe Club star took the new, more demanding schedule in his stride as he and Rich Hounslow improved by four seconds on their second run to clock the fifth-fastest time, 108.19sec, in the C2 heats.

Aberdeen's Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott found even more speed on their second attempt, going quickest overall in 106.78.

Florence returned later in the C1 qualifiers and topped the timesheets on the opening run in 97.48. German Sideris Tasiadis later managed to better that by just 0.07sec. "It was a good first day of racing," said Florence. "I came through qualification comfortably."

Following a welcome rest day, Florence returns to the water tomorrow in the team races before Saturday's C2 semi-finals/final and the C1 climax on Sunday.