Florence ready for fast show as he eyes fourth gold at World Slalom Championships

Edinburgh canoeist David Florence insists he is going faster than last year as he prepares to go for his fourth global gold at the World Slalom Championships in Rio later today.

The 36-year-old claimed his first World Cup victory since 2015 when he won the C1 final in Krakow in June, but Florence has also had some disappointments this summer and even capsized in his last race at the World Cup finals in Spain earlier this month.

“Obviously I would have liked more good results this season, but, on the plus side, I’ve put down the fastest time on loads of occasions in the heats and semis but not in finals, apart from Krakow,” he said. “Last year I wasn’t having so many good runs at any stage in the competition. I’m paddling fast this season, and to win both the semi and final in Krakow shows that the potential is there.”

Florence, pictured, claimed his third Olympic silver medal in Rio in 2016, and he hopes his intimate knowledge of the course will pay off again this week. “I did a lot of training here in the run-up to 2016 and the course hasn’t changed much at all. Most of the features have stayed the same,” he said. “We were supposed to be training here earlier in the summer, but there were a few problems and we didn’t come. We trained at Lee Valley instead and they managed to make some parts of the course similar to Rio.” Fellow Scots Fiona Pennie and Bradley Forbes-cryans are also in Brazil this week. Pennie was a world silver medallist in the K1 kayak class in 2006 and 2014 and showed that she’s still a major contender when she finished third at this summer’s European Championships in Prague.

The Crieff canoeist, also sixth at the Olympics on the same Rio course, said: “It’s all going well and I definitely feel at home on the water.”

Despite being bothered by the heat, Forbes-cryans is determined to build on his K1 silver medal at the World Under-23 Championships in Italy in July. “That has definitely given me confidence and told me that I’m in good shape,” he said. “I’m lookingtotakeitonerunatatime and really try to focus on my own performance. If I do that, then hopefully the result will be good and I’ll get through to the final.”

All three Scots are in action today in the team events with Florence aiming to upgrade his 2017 silver to gold.