GB's David Florence wins silver at Canoe Slalom World Cup
Last updated on .From the section Olympics
Britain's David Florence continued his strong pre-Olympics form by winning a C1 silver medal at the Canoe Slalom World Cup event in Seu D'Urgell, Spain.
The Scot, who recently became the first man to win two golds across two classes at a single World Cup, claimed his third medal from his last five starts.
The Beijing silver medallist took an early lead in the final and only Spaniard Jordi Domenjo overtook him.
"It's a great finish to three weeks on the road," said 29-year-old Florence.
"I feel pretty awesome. I put in solid runs and built through the competition, so when I saw my final run time I knew it was good based on the semi-finals."
After earning a 50-second time penalty in the World Cup event in Pau, France, last week that followed his double triumph in Cardiff, Florence qualified eighth from his semi-final in Spain and improved on it in the final, finishing ahead of French double Olympic champion Tony Estanguet.
"It's been a solid start to the season for David with a gold and now silver in the C1," said GB head coach Jurg Gotz. "He had a really good run, lost a little bit of time, but his confidence is high and he's paddling well."
Fellow Briton Mark Proctor finished seventh.
Florence's hopes of winning two medals at the same World Cup for the second time in three weeks ended when he and Richard Hounslow could only manage 13th in the semi-finals of the double canoe, the C2, on Sunday.
"It wasn't our best day obviously," he told BBC Sport. "Two bits didn't quite flow and we hit three gates, and you can't expect to make the final if you have six seconds of penalties.
"It is disappointing but I would be more concerned if we were too slow. Nothing about this weekend makes us think we can't go on and do well in London."
Fellow Britons Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, who are also part of the Olympic squad, followed up fourth and fifth places at the previous two World Cup events by finished sixth in the final, after a costly time error and a two-second penalty.
"It was good to make the final as it's never a given, and the field was strong," said Baillie. "The course today was very biased to back rights, which made racing even tougher as we felt on the back foot from the start."
Hounslow went out in the semi-finals of the K1, the individual kayak, on Saturday.
Hounslow and fellow Briton Campbell Walsh both picked up 50-second time penalties to fall back to 39th and 40th respectively as Frenchman Etienne Daillie took gold.
In the women's kayak, Lizzie Neave - who won bronze in Pau last week and will represent Team GB in London - finished 10th in Sunday's K1 final after picking up 54 seconds of penalties, including 50 at the seventh gate. Louise Donington and Fiona Pennie both missed out in the semis.
"I'm disappointed," said Neave. "A late decision by the video judge left me with a 50. It was a tricky course and I never quite got my lines right."
