Scots Tim Baillie and David Florence take gold and silver in canoeing

Great Britain also scooped silver in the event, with fellow Scot David Florence and partner Richard Hounslow impressing.

Stott and Baillie won gold in a time of 106.41 seconds, followed by Florence and Hounslow who registered a time of 106.77 seconds.

It meant despair for three-time Olympic champions, twin brothers Pavol and Peter Hochschorner of Slovakia, who took bronze.

Baillie and Stott were first to go in the final and set the fastest time of the day, roared on by a capacity crowd of British canoe fans.

The partisan spectators started cheering as the following Chinese crew and Polish crews hit gates, incurring costly penalties, and ranking themselves outside the medals.

The biggest threat to Baillie and Stott's time came from the Slovakian twins, who had won gold in Sydney, Athens and Beijing, but they also hit a gate and in the end finished outside the British crew's time.

As Florence and Hounslow were last to run in the final, that guaranteed Britain a gold medal. The only question concerned whether they could beat their compatriots' time.

They made the perfect start and were ahead at the first split, but coming out of the last gate they could not stay ahead of Baillie and Stott and lost out on gold by 0.36 seconds.Florence was left disappointed in the singles contest earlier this week as he failed to qualify for the finals.

However he and Hounslow combined to take the silver after an incredible gold-winning run from Team GB colleagues Stott and Baillie.

Florence, who also won silver in Beijing in 2008 for the singles event, said: "We had to focus on our own run and we were pleased with it.

"To win an Olympic medal, we are certainly not disappointed."

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