Florence's gold hopes sunk

The Scot, a silver medallist in Beijing four years ago, failed to finish in the top eight of the C1 semi-final and was eliminated.

He started well down the 300m river of churning water but midway down the course he momentarily lost control of his canoe and conceded a two-second time penalty when he brushed against one of the suspended green poles.

More time slipped away on the lower section and despite huge roars for the 12,000 crowd he crossed the line in 106.16 seconds which was only good enough for 10th place.

"This is the race I wanted to perform at for the past four years and I failed to do so," a soggy Florence said.

"It would be easy to make the excuse of the pressure of the home crowd but the fact is canoe slalom is up and down.

"I obviously wanted to perform and I've been working towards this moment for the last four years, so it's a big disappointment," he added.

"I was perfectly prepared but it just didn't happen and that happens sometimes. I didn't have a disastrous run, it just wasn't good enough and the whole way down I was fighting it a little bit.

“I did everything I could, I'm disappointed and frustrated not to even get a chance to go for a medal but that is the way of this sport and I just have to accept that on the day I wasn't good enough.”

Germany's Sideris Tasiadis was quickest of the eight to qualify for the final with Slovakia's Michal Martikan and France's Tony Estanguet, who have shared the gold medal over the last four Olympics, safely through.

Britain's medal haul has so far been disappointing at the Games, with no golds, although rowing and track cycling are expected to give home fans a lift.