BY this time next week, Edinburgh's Forth Canoe Club could have an Olympic champion in its ranks.
Former Roseburn Primary and Stewart's Melville pupil David Florence capsized in his first-ever race but is now ranked world No.5 in the C1 Canadian sprint slalom, which is run through a series of gates on a raging river.
The omens are good for
Beijing as the Scot celebrates his 26th birthday on opening ceremony day this Friday, a date specially chosen because the Chinese believe the sequence of eights (8.8.08) is lucky.
Any good fortune would be welcome but, ahead of Monday's qualifiers and Tuesday's semi and final, Florence admitted: "I don't really believe in omens, although going to the Olympics is a pretty good birthday present."
Bagpipe lover Florence has been in Beijing for over a week now after safely transporting his custom-built 3.6m-long, 10kg boat on a flight from Heathrow.
And, within hours of arriving, he was off to the Shunyi Olympic venue for a training session.
"Preparations have been going well," he said. "The course is very technically demanding – it's fast white water with lots of stoppers and waves.
"I've been doing quite a high volume of work and I'm just starting to ease my training down and sharpen up for racing."
Florence has already excelled on the course after finishing fourth in last August's test event. He also studied it in June during a ten-day training visit.
Olympic venues seem to suit the former World Student Games champion as he claimed World Cup gold two years ago on the Munich 1972 course in Augsburg and was third in his most recent outing at La Seu d'Urgell near Barcelona.
"The course here is pretty different to Seu and Augsburg," he points out. "It's much bigger and harder water here, but I really like the course and I think it suits me as well as anywhere."
Despite finishing fifth at last September's World Championships in Brazil, less than a second off a medal, and also placing second in the World Cup standings, Florence had to fight to make Britain's Olympic team. His rival for the single berth in the C1 class was English veteran Stuart McIntosh, who was eighth at both the Sydney and Athens Games.
Following a series of trials in Holland, everything rested on the final qualifier on McIntosh's home water in Nottingham in April. Florence won the day but admitted: "I have great respect for Stuart. He pushed me right to the last run.
"Being selected to represent Britain in the Olympics is a dream come true. It's been a long-term major ambition of mine and it's truly the highlight of my sporting career."
That career began when his uncle brought a canoe on a family outing to the beach at Seacliff, East Lothian. His dad George was also a paddler, so there must be something in the Florence genes.
But it didn't look that way in May 1997 when 14-year-old David capsized during his debut slalom.
That summer, Florence switched from kayak to the Canadian canoe in which competitors power the boat with a single blade while kneeling.
Having joined Forth Canoe Club, David trained on the Union Canal with his first coach Kevin McHugh before moving to Nottingham where he gained a BSc degree in Mathematical Physics and hooked up with his current coach Mark Delaney at the National Watersports Centre.
Within four years of that disastrous first race, he was part of the senior British squad, training 12 times a week as he moved up the world rankings from 15th to eighth to fifth.
His smooth progression came to a sudden halt at the European Championships in Krakow in May. After qualifying third, a missed gate cost him a 50-second time penalty and relegated him to 37th place. Florence bounced back to finish third at the World Cup in Prague in June and admits: "That boosted my confidence."
He also took bronze in Spain last month after beating France's double Olympic gold medallist Tony Estanguet in qualifying.
Runner-up Ander Elosegui of Spain should challenge again next week, as will Slovakian world champion Michal Martikan, Australia's Robin Bell and Germans Nico Bettge and Jan Benzian.
"I'm certainly not favourite for gold," concedes Florence as he bids to pip Bridge of Allan's 2004 kayak silver medallist Campbell Walsh and Crieff's Fiona Pennie to the honour of becoming Britain's first-ever Olympic canoeing champion. "There are two strong favourites: Martikan and Estanguet. I'm trying to put in a good performance for myself and I'll have to wait to see where that puts me. I've medalled at two races this year, so I'm definitely capable of being right up there.
"I'll give it my best shot," he concludes modestly, but don't bet against him upsetting the odds, then celebrating on the podium with his bagpipes.
The full article contains 826 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
