Canoeing: Florence off to a flyer in Bratislava

Edinburgh's Olympic silver medallist David Florence made a flying start to his title challenge at the European Slalom Championships in Bratislava.

The Forth Canoe Club star was only 15th on his first run in the C1 Canadian heats but nailed his second attempt, finishing second-fastest in 102.51secs.

"The first run didn't really flow, but it was a good second run," said Florence.

His task in tomorrow's semi-finals is to avoid what happened at the Prague World Cup in June when he qualified quickest before crashing out in the semis.

Slovakia's double Olympic champion Michal Martikan went over three seconds faster than Florence to fire out a clear warning to his rivals.

The Scot returned last night to qualify for the C2 semis with team-mate Rich Hounslow. The Britons gambled on passing their second run but still went through safely in fourth place.

"We decided not to do our second run to save energy for the next couple of days," said Florence.