DAVID Florence returned to the scene of his double world title triumph in 2013 to win a bronze medal in canoe singles at the opening World Cup race of the season in Prague.
The Aberdeen-born paddler was fourth fastest in the semi-final when he clocked 93.46 seconds and his medal hopes were in the balance in the final when he was in second place (with a clean run of 92.33 seconds) with the three fastest qualifiers to come.
But Slovakian Matej Benus and German Olympic silver medallist Sideris Tasiadis both incurred two-second penalties for touching gates, leaving Florence still in the silver medal position with only home favourite and fastest qualifier Stanislav Jezek to come.
Home hope Jezek produced an impressive clean run of 90.68 seconds to snatch gold from Slovenian Benjamin Savsek (91.25 seconds) and drop Florence down to third.
"I really like racing in Prague, it's always a great atmosphere and it's nice to get on the podium," Florence said. "It was interesting to see Jezek win.
"He's been looking dominant so many times and not pulling off the final, so it was good to see that too.
"I couldn't tell you how many times I've raced this course but there's been one big race here a year and I've been on the scene for 15 years, so I have probably raced here 10 times and won a lot of medals. I've certainly had good success here.
"I love racing the World Cups because you are racing against the best guys in the world.
"It's a harder race than the Olympics, certainly, and arguably sometimes more than the World Championships with up to four boats per nation sometimes in the good events. To me, they are big races where I try to do the best I can. I'd love to get on the podium in the overall World Cup as well and of course doing all these races through the season is all good practice for the World Championships as well."
The Scot goes for another medal in today's canoe doubles with England's Richard Hounslow.
In the kayak, Bradley Forbes- Cryans, the fastest British qualifier, missed out on the final when he had to settle for 15th in the semi-finals in a time of 91.47 seconds after touching two gates.
He posted the fourth-fastest time but the four-second penalty counted him out of the final.
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