Kayaking: Whanganui competitors make K4 B Final at world champs

The NZ Junior Men's K4 500m team of Lucas Thompson, Jack Clifton, Fletcher Moles and Robson Old. Photo by Alison Pritchard.

It was their first experience of intense European competition, and Whanganui teenagers Lucas Thompson and Jack Clifton should be better for the experience after finishing ninth in their B Final of the World Championships in Romania on Sunday, NZ time.

Whanganui High students Thompson and Clifton teamed with Waitara's Fletcher Mole and Robson Old as the junior men's K4 500m crew at the 2019 ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint champs, held in Pitesti.

Racing was at the Budeasa Dam on the Arges River.

The team finished seventh in their heat, completing a race won by the Hungarian crew, in 1m 33.392s, which saw the Kiwis into the semifinals at 5.54pm, NZ time, Sunday.

They went to the B Final after coming eighth in the semifinal, finishing in 1m 35.56s, just under eight seconds back from the winning Russian crew.

While they would have liked a stronger finish in the Consolation Final, the Kiwis completed it in 1m 39.002s, again around eight seconds behind the victorious French crew.

The standout result for the New Zealand contingent in Pitesti came from the Mana club's Kurtis Imrie, who is also part of the senior NZ Canoe Sprint team with Whanganui's Max Brown.

Imrie claimed a Under 23 K1 500m bronze medal, the maiden Kiwi medal of the regatta, after having to race four times in a little under four hours when including his K4 500m event.

Thompson and Clifton's breaking through to international level follows in the footsteps of Whanganui clubmates Brown, Aiden Nossiter, Toby Brooke, Erica Tanner and Sophie Brooke.