David Florence wins canoe golds with straightforward plan
Last updated on .From the section Canoeing
Double canoeing world champion David Florence insists he approached the World Championships in Prague without a specific medal target in mind.
The 31-year-old Scot emerged from the canoe slalom event with golds in the and in the latter partnering Richard Hounslow.
He told BBC Scotland: "This weekend the results came about not from me chasing a result or trying to win the double.
"It was trying to put in the best runs I could on the days."
And he added: "I focused on that and it's gone well for me and that's what I'll continue to do."
The brace of gold medals means Florence has become the first British man to win the C1 and C2 double in the same year.
The feat has been achieved only once before, by Swiss paddler Charles Dussuet in 1953.
Florence is also a double Olympic silver-medal winner, with solo success in Beijing in 2008 and a doubles runners-up placing in London last year, again with Hounslow.
At the London Olympics the duo were pipped to the gold medal by GB team-mates Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, but Florence maintains that missing out on the main prize then was not his sole motivation for the World Championships.
"There was a determination to come out the season well no matter what had happened in London," said the Aberdeen-born athlete.
"It's a case of taking your successes when they come and it has been a fantastic weekend for me.
"It's hard to believe how everything came just right for me in those final runs.
"To be a world champion would have been a great outcome but to have won the double really is quite incredible.
"It's hard to win one medal at the World Championships - I've only ever won one bronze before - so to have won the gold in two events in the one weekend and at the World Championships, especially here in Prague where it is a big sport and a huge event, is incredible."
Florence and Hounslow finished their race before the Czech pairing of Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek set off on their world title attempt.
"We crossed the finish line and we knew we had had a great run," explained Florence.
"I definitely felt I was going to get a medal again; it was just a case of waiting to see what medal it was going to be.
"It was very, very close. The Czech crew were only four-hundredths of a second behind us when they crossed the line.
"We were just on the right side of that margin this time.
"That's racing; that's the way it goes sometimes. Although it was a disappointment to be just on the wrong side of the margin in London, this time it worked well for us."
With the season now ended, Florence plans to have "a week or two of rest" before beginning winter training.
"We've got a lot of big races coming up again next year," he said.
"It's on with the Olympic cycle towards Rio in 2016."
