Slovak siblings seek slalom greatness LONDON (Reuters) - Hailed as the greatest canoe slalom C-2 team of all time, Slovakian twins Pavol and Peter Hochschorner are favorites to make it an oarsome foursome in London and etch their names into Olympic folklore. The 32-year-old brothers have won three consecutive Olympic golds in the discipline and top the world rankings, making them strong favorites for a fourth title at the Lee Valley White Water center, east of London, later this month. The pair, six-times world and eight-times European champions, came through perhaps their toughest assignment in qualifying for the Slovakian team, whose strength can be measured by the quality of those who failed to make it. Double Olympic women's K1 champion Elena Kaliska is the most high profile absentee and misses the chance to make it three consecutive golds after she was pipped by double world champion Jana Dukatova for Slovakia's one place in the discipline. Michal Martikan, who won Slovakia's first gold as a 17-year-old at the 1996 Atlanta Games, will be aiming for his third after he made it on to the team following a close fight with multiple world champion Matej Benus. Martikan faces a scrap for gold, though, and has fallen behind his great rival Tony Estanguet of France in the world rankings, which are topped by David Florence of Britain. Home favorite Florence was denied gold four years ago in C-1 by Martikan, but the Scot could prove the thorn in the side of the Slovakian and many others at the Games this time around. Florence, who failed in his bid to become a European Space Agency astronaut before the Beijing Games, won two World Cup golds in the C-1 and C-2 in Wales last month and believes the competition is wide open. "It is such an 'on the day' sport, so to win any medal at all is fantastic," Florence told the BBC after his success. Florence had teamed up with Richard Hounslow in the C-2 to beat the Slovakian speedster siblings but the Hochschorners will take heart they were quicker than the British duo over the Cardiff course and lost only on penalty points. In the sprints at Eton Dorney, west of the capital, Germany's 35-year-old Katrin Wagner-Augustin is also aiming for a golden quartet when she teams up in the K-4 500 meters, a title she first one in Sydney 12 years ago. Edited by Ossian Shine