WELSHMAN David Davies stormed into the final of the 1500m freestyle tomorrow with a commanding display in the heats this morning.

The Cardiff-born 19-year-old was the fastest qualifier to make the final, not only beating his personal best but also setting new British record for the event.

His time of 14.57.03 is only the second time anyone has swum under 15 seconds in the heats of a Olympic 1500m freestyle competition.

Swimming in lane four Davies, ranked third in the world, always looked in control, winning the heat by a comfortable margin.

The next qualifier Yuri Prilukov of Russia, who swam in heat five, was four seconds behind the Welshman's time, with world record holder and Olympic champion Grant Hackett nearly five seconds slower then Davies.

American Larsen Jensen also made the final with Davies' fellow TeamGB member Graeme Smith joining him in the final after qualifying seventh, with Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece and Australia's Craig Stevens also making tomorrow night's final.

Team GB added another silver to their medal tally this afternoon following a superb display by Campbell Walsh in the final of the K1 slalom.

However, for several minutes Walsh thought he had won a bronze. The Scottish Olympic debutant followed his superb semi-final run with a near-faultless assault on the man-made course in the final.

The first published results said that he had finished third, but officials later recognised a timing error and upgraded Walsh to silver.

His silver was Britain's second medal in the canoeing events at these Games, following Helen Reeves who claimed bronze in the women's K1 on Wednesday.

The athletics began at the Olympic Stadium as Denise Lewis started the defence of her heptathlon title.

Lewis, who claimed gold in Sydney four years ago, won the third of five heats of the 100m hurdles in a season's best time of 13.40 seconds to open her campaign with 1,065 points.

British team-mate Kelly Sotherton, who came to Athens ranked third in the world this year, also made a steady start in her first Olympics.

Sotherton, opened with fifth place in the first heat in a time of 13.44secs for 1,059 points.

Phillips Idowu is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Jonathan Edwards and take Olympic gold - and he could not have begun his triple jump campaign more encouragingly.

Idowu powered down the runway and leapt 17.33m, just 35cm below his personal best, to qualify with some comfort in fourth place for Sunday's final.

Alison Sheppard qualified for the semi-finals of the women's 50m freestyle in her fifth and final Olympics.

Also in the pool, both the men and the women then qualified for tomorrow night's final of the 4x100m medley relay.

Welsh stars Philippa Roles (discus) and Tim Benjamin (400m) are in action this evening.