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Page last updated at 19:16 GMT, Tuesday, 4 May 2010 20:16 UK

David Florence to lead Great Britain's slalom squad

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Highlights - GB slalom canoeing trials

Olympic silver medallist David Florence will lead the GB squad at this year's European and World Championships.

Scot Florence, 27, dominated his class at trials in Nottingham last weekend to select a 15-strong squad.

GB travel to Slovenia for the Euros on 4-6 June, with the World Championships in Slovenia in September.

"We've got quality across the classes, strength in depth and we look forward with optimism," said performance director John Anderson.

"I think it's exciting times for canoe slalom - 2009 was a really good season for us, good team medal results. As we go into 2010 it just looks like all of the classes have stepped up."

The athletes competed in daily races over the Bank Holiday weekend, which consisted of a semi-final and a final run, with the best two race results counting towards their overall score.

And the top three in each of the five competing classes attained places in the Great Britain team.

One of the most hotly contested classes was the women's kayak single (K1).

World bronze medallist Lizzie Neave had pre-qualified thanks to her achievements in last year's championships, but four athletes headed into the final race with the chance of gaining one of the two remaining squad positions.

Laura Blakeman, was part of the GB women's team who won gold at the 2009 World Championships. The 31-year-old had won a race on day two, but after missing a gate on the final morning she was left waiting for the outcome of other results.

Victory for Louise Donington and second place for Fiona Pennie meant they took the GB places.

"Laura's been fantastic in training, we've all been pushing each other really hard. She was really close behind me, that small mistake, a little bit too much speed and everything changes," said Pennie.

One of the performances of the weekend was delivered by Campbell Walsh, silver medallist from the 2004 Athens Games.

The 32-year old Scot was diagnosed with mumps in March and has barely trained over the last month.

He recorded a third and a second place in the first two days and an impressive victory, just 0.01 sec ahead of Richard Hounslow, on the final run, assured him a place in the GB squad.

"I'd actually just been in my boat for eight very short training sessions in the last five weeks which is only about 20% of what everyone else is doing," he said.

"But I'm building back up and actually that last run gave me confidence that I'm not too far away from where I need to be for international events."



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see also
Why GB are set for more golds in 2012
06 Dec 09 |  Canoeing
Neave adds bronze to medal haul
13 Sep 09 |  Canoeing
GB women land canoe slalom gold
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Canoeing tips
04 Aug 08 |  Canoeing
Get into canoeing
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