SLALOM canoeist Alex Burt competed in his first world championships on the Isere River in the French Alps at the weekend.

Paddling in the Canadian doubles class on the course which is recognised as being the most demanding and technically difficult in the world, Alex and fellow Army officer Andy Nicoll narrowly missed out on a bronze medal by a 10th of a second to the Polish team.

In their qualifying runs for the Canadian doubles individual event, Alex, from Croft, was particularly pleased with their 17th place finish - the highest placing of the three Great Britain boats which took part in the event.

However, having reached the semi-finals stage of the competition, technical errors on the fast moving water resulted in a placing of 21st.

Alex, who has enjoyed his first season in the Canadian doubles class, said: "We are now ranked 18th in the world and after a full winter of training, we expect to be challenging for top 10 placings in the world cup series next year."

Highlights of the World Championships are due to be featured on BBC Grandstand on Saturday afternoon.