Whanganui's Max Brown and his men's K2 partner Kurtis Imrie signed off their open World Championship debut with a plucky display to place sixth in a fiercely competitive B Final on Sunday evening, NZ time.
At their first ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe world championships in Szeged, Hungary, the youngKiwis had performed with distinction in both the heats and semifinals, coming sixth in the latter, and for the B Final they started from lane one into a tricky headwind.
Brown and Imrie made a strong start and at the half-distance mark of 500m they were sitting in fourth, 1.64 seconds behind the Belgium crew.
In the second half, the powerful Danish combination of Rene Holten Poulsen and Morten Graversen came to the fore, while Brown and Imrie slipped to eighth by the 750m checkpoint.
The pair were resolute in the latter stages to haul themselves back up to sixth with a competitive 3m 31.66s time. The Danes secured top spot, 2.65s clear.
