Florian paddles his way to finals

SANDY BEACH athlete Marius “Cristi” Florian made two finals appearances at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships held at Szeged, Hungary, at the weekend.

He finished seventh qualifier from the heats of the C1 500 event and eventually finished sixth in his semi and ninth in the final.

Earlier he had finished fifth in C1 1000 heats, which did not qualify him for the next round.

But another big moment arrived when he made the C1 5km A final, finishing in 18th position.

Admitting he was shy of publicity before heading overseas, the C.ex Coffs employee deserves to take a bow when overall performance by the Australian team are taken into account.

With European competitors dominating, Australia finished 18th on the medal table with one silver and two bronze.

Florian’s results put him close to that level.

He is a silver scholarship holder with the New South Wales Institute of Sport and a member of the Australian Institute of Sport developing international program.