DAVID Florence admits that the waters he must navigate to secure a Team GB canoe slalom spot at the Tokyo Olympics have never been choppier. Vying in the C1 category with Ryan Westley and Adam Burgess, one-two at last year’s European Championships, for a solitary spot, the 36-year-old Scot, three times a silver medallist - in Beijing, London and Rio – fully accepts that he has his work cut out just to make the squad for next summer. But it says it all about the steely, almost scientific focus of this remarkable 36-year-old from Aberdeen that he has already visited the course and taken a crash course in Japanese. Just in case, you understand.

“I HAVE started learning Japanese,” said Florence, on the eve of the European Championships, which get under way in Pau, France today. “In the last year or so, I have been out to Japan a couple of times in training camps.

“It wasn’t the whole team, just me and my Scottish training partner Bradley [Forbes-Cryans],” he added. “It was out in Koto City,” he added. “It was a really cool experience to go out there and I started learning the language a bit too, hopefully I get to go back out there. I can speak a little bit of French, German, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese. I wouldn’t say I am fluent but I can get by.”

To complicate matters further, this week’s European Championships don’t count towards Olympic qualification. That boils down to three events, last year’s British trials – which Westley was exempt from due to a shoulder injury – a home World Cup at Lee Valley in a fortnight’s time and the World Championships in Spain in September. It seems unfair that unlike cycling, where the likes of Scotland Callum Skinner and Jason Kenny could battle out on all-British team sprint final, only one man will make the cut.

“The first challenge is just to get there,” admits Florence. “That is what I am focusing on at the minute. The season has started pretty well, I won the Australian Open, beat most of the top guys there. Now I just need to keep it up.

“In my category I have three guys who have won medals in the last couple of years – all of us would be medal contenders at the Olympics – but only one of us gets to go. So it is going to be really, really tough, All my focus is trying to get the best out of myself.

“Without a doubt, this is the toughest qualification equation I have ever been involved in,” he added. “It is going to be tough for any of the classes, and possibly the C1 men is going to be the hardest of all. But then there have been times when other nations have had it even tougher, the Slovaks sometimes have three in the top five in the world. It definitely pushes you on, keeps you working hard – not that I struggle with that anyway!

“It would be great to see some sort of system where if you could have two guys who were very very strong, but that is not the way it works.The Olympic Games itself is arguably a much weaker start line than most of our world cups or world championships, although it is obviously much harder to get there.”

Like Katherine Grainger, who won gold at London 2012 after silver medals at the previous three Olympic games, the narrative is simple when it comes to Florence: that he is driven in a quest to bring back that elusive gold medal. Florence sees it somewhat differently, but then he is wired somewhat differently to me and you. “To be honest, it isn’t really about the gold,” he says. “I don’t really spend too much time thinking about what is gone in the past. Each Olympics was very different, how the medals came about. Do I rue missing out on gold, just a little bit. But so many people trying to go for the Olympic games, there are very few guys in the whole world who have won the medals I have and I am very grateful about every osn.

“Okay, I would have preferred to have won the gold, but it isn’t really about having to win the gold this time. It is just about getting there, being proud to be representing Britain, and doing it to the best of my ability. Whether that is gold, silver or fourth, I will accept the result.”

In addition to passing on Scotland’s legacy in this sport to the likes of Forbes-Cryans, Florence has some hints and tips to pass on to his own kids, all three of which are under five. “My oldest two were in my boat for a bit last summer for a bit of fun, they enjoyed it,” he said. “I am sure I will give them the opportunity to try it [canoe slalom] but as long as they are happy, it doesn’t really bother me what they get into.”