Florence wins silver

Florence was the fourth fastest qualifier for the final, but his time of 178.61 put him in first place as the final canoeist, Michal Martikan from Slovakia, began his run.

The Slovakian registered 176.65 to take the gold, with Florence finishing in silver medal position.

Robin Bell of Australia grabbed bronze.

"I"ve got an Olympic medal, I"m absolutely delighted," said Florence after the event. "This really is a dream come true.

"It's been a long, long time coming and means everything to me.

"I was fourth going into the final, so I knew I was in the mix. The thing with slalom canoeing is there"s one opportunity to do it, one opportunity not to make mistakes.

"I hit a gate in my semi-final run and that cost me a two second penalty straight away, so I knew that if I could avoid that and have a good clean run then I was in with a chance.

"I feel like I've really earned my silver medal. Michal won this event in 1996 and has been around a long time. He's a very tough competitor."

Athens silver medalist Campbell Walsh of Great Britain was a strong contender for the gold in the K1 but the reigning European champion failed to qualify for the final after missing a gate and only posting a time of 95.74, which saw him finish in 15th.

Alexander Grimm won Germany's first gold of the Games in the event ahead of Frenchman Fabien Lefevre and Togo's Benjamin Boukpeti.

Grimm, starting his final run in fourth place, jumped to first by blazing down the course without an error and taking the difficult upstream gates smoothly.

Boukpeti, ranked 56th in the world, stunned the field by taking the lead in his first run and held on to win Togo's first Olympic medal.

Ireland's Eoin Rheinisch produced a fantastic performance and just missed out on a medal in fourth.

Slovenia's Peter Kauzer, one of the favourites who won Monday's preliminaries with two solid runs, struggled on the reconfigured course and finished 13th.