BRADFORD on Avon paddler Ed McKeever roared into the Olympic final of the K1 200m canoe sprint event with victories in his heat and semi final at Eton Dorney this morning.

The 28-year-old, tipped as a potential British gold medallist, clocked a new Olympic best of 35.087 in his heat to book his place in the later semi final.

McKeever's time was the fastest of all three morning heats, with Serbia's Marko Novakovic second behind the Wiltshire man, and Hungary's Miklos Dudas third.

McKeever then followed up by clinching his semi final to book his place in tomorrow morning's final (9.30am) ahead of France's Maxime Beaumont  and Dudas, with 13-time world champion Ronald Rauhe, of Germany, squeezing into the final in fourth.

McKeever's time was a 10th of a second slower than Canada's Mark de Jonge, who woin the first semi final.

In another boost for McKeever, another of his main rivals for gold, Poland's reigning world champion Piotr Siemionowski failed to make it through the semi finals.

McKeever marked his victory by turning to the grandstands and pumping his fists.

Speaking after his race, he said: "Obviously it's nice to win your semi-final, you get a nice central lane for tomorrow's race and I am really looking forward to it tomorrow.

"I see it's forecast that it's for a headwind tomorrow so that could mean slower times but I have done lots of fitness work over the winter, so hopefully I came out alright.

“This was a good first day for me but I know it is only half the job done so I need to go out there and keep the work rate high and hopefully finish it off.

“The Games kicked off two weeks ago and I have been away at a training camp just to ease the nerves so we are not hanging around and waiting and I think it has worked really well,” he added.

“Watching all the golds and everything roll in for Great Britain it is hard not to be inspired really.

“It is amazing to see guys like Sir Chris Hoy win time after time and hopefully I can add to that in my final.”

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