Florence continues his slalom challenge in Bratislava

Capital canoeist David Florence set up a three-way title battle after qualifying safely for today’s C1 slalom semis at the World Cup Finals in Bratislava yesterday.

The double Olympic silver medallist 
was World Cup champion in 2009 but trails local hero 
Alex Slafkovsky and Spain’s Ander Elosegi in this year’s standings.

Despite picking up six 
seconds of time penalties, Florence’s first run of 2mins 06.60secs was good enough to qualify tenth-fastest overall with Slafkovsky going second-quickest behind his fellow Slovak Matej Benus. Elosegi also stayed in contention after scraping through in 26th place.