David Florence bounced back from Tuesday's final flop to clinch his third Olympic silver medal and insisted the C2 success, alongside Richard Hounslow, was not tinged with disappointment at the gold that got away.

Florence, who had finished last in the C1 final two days earlier, admitted a spell of relative solitude had shaped him for another shot at the title they had narrowly missed out on at London 2012, where they were pipped by compatriots Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott.

This time it was the Slovakian Skantar cousins, Ladislav and Peter, who would deny them with a searing final run at the Whitewater Stadium in Deodoro, but only after Florence and Hounslow saw an advantage at the halfway stage of over one-and-a-half seconds washed away as they missed out on gold by 0.43 seconds.

Florence, whose first silver medal was in the C1 in Beijing, insisted: "I'm not disappointed at all. It wasn't quite gold, but after the disappointment a couple of days ago for me, we just wanted to put together a really solid run and perform to the best of our ability.

"In a sport like this, when you spend all your time preparing and the slightest of mistakes costs you a medal, I'm really pleased with the way we held that run together.

"The Skantars went drastically faster than I think anyone thought possible on the basis of the first runs. That can be a little bit scary when you are sat at the start and you've still got five minutes to wait for your run."

Florence credited Hounslow, who had almost quit the sport to become an officer at Sandhurst after missing out on selection for the 2008 Beijing Games, for helping him forget his C1 disappointment to have another shot at an elusive Olympic gold.

Hounslow said: "You don't have to do much - David is a professional. Sometimes you have just got to let him go off and start stewing on his own emotions. You slowly start building back in.

"Yesterday he picked up throughout the day. I could see it wasn't going to take much for him to be really up for a good performance. Controlled anger is almost a good thing. You are out there working hard and pushing hard, and that's what David is so good at.

"He is focused, he is so powerful and strong. I can just make sure we are controlled at the back and keep us going in the right direction. Top to bottom it was a good run - maybe not perfect but that is the name of the game."

The pair's silver followed the stunning gold medal win for Joe Clarke in the men's K1 on the same course on Wednesday. But Fiona Pennie could not make it three when she incurred four seconds' worth of time penalties and trailed in sixth place in the women's C1 final behind winner Maialen Chourraut of Spain.

Florence and Hounslow had cruised through their semi-final earlier on Thursday, setting the third-fastest time, while the experienced Skantars, the multiple European champions, were only sixth fastest of the 10 qualifiers.

But their stunning time of 101.58 set the mark and proved too much to match despite Florence and Hounslow holding a clear lead at the halfway split point, eventually falling away despite no obvious mistakes over the second part of the course.

There was still a danger of missing out on the podium but a medal was secured for the Britons when the next pair down, the Czech Republic's Jonas Kaspar and Marek Sindler, pushed too hard and capsized midway down the course, eventually finishing in eighth place.

And Germany's Franz Anton and Jan Benzien, who had qualified fastest, were more than two seconds down on the winners, sealing another silver for Florence and Hounslow, and earning French paid Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche the bronze.

While Hounslow intimated it may have been his last Olympics, Florence, who said he had been more disappointed after missing out on gold in London, indicated he will carry on in search of gold in Tokyo.

"I still love canoeing," he added. "I've loved all the training and the build-up to the Games. If things continue successfully for me, I'd love to go to Tokyo. I'm still canoeing and I'm not going to retire - but Tokyo seems a long way away at the minute."