White water rafting: Kiwis up there with the best

New Zealand's under-19 women, all of Tauranga, paddle through the gates on their way to a first gold medal. Photo / Ian Trafford.

Two gold, a silver and a bronze medal on the water capped another great day for young New Zealand rafters as the 2013 White Water World Rafting Championships reached the slalom stage for the under-19 and under-23 crews.

After taking bronze and silver medals yesterday, New Zealand's under-19 girls, who all hail from Tauranga, went one better on Saturday in a very physical slalom race on the Tarawera.

Fourteen gates and some super-strong currents to paddle against made it a tough event for all of the competitors, but the Kiwi girls put together a great run with only 35 penalties - enough to push the classy Brazilians into second place and secure a gold medal for captain Courtney Williams (15), Paris Taniwha (15), Hayle Dangen (18), Suzie Cumming (16), Chelsi Williams (17) and Kaydi O'Connor-Stratton.

Captain Williams - like her crew mates and experienced rafting coach Paul Roozendaal - was all smiles after the race.

"There are five of us who all do kayak slalom and we have been practising with the rafting for well over eight months now ahead of this event and together for a year preparing," said Williams.

"We're just overwhelmed to have beaten the Brazilian girls and taken out the gold.

"We have to get a good night's rest as we still have a chance of winning overall with the down river left to go. We'll be going for it."

The under-23 girls - highly motivated after their fabulous sprint and head-to-head performance on Saturday, kept it all together for a very clean second run in the slalom that was enough to beat second placed Czech Republic by 12.38secs after penalties.

With three gold medals out of three, the youngsters led overall by 81 points and had a great chance of winning the big-scoring downriver and securing the overall honours.

The Kiwi men took their first medals today with second place for the under-19 crew and third for the under-23 crew.

Both races were hotly contested, and the gold headed to the crews with the fewest penalties on the demanding course.

The Czech Republic, winners of the under-23 category, produced the slickest performance of the day in their first run, which was both fast and clean and left rivals more than 50 seconds in arrears.

They couldn't quite match that on their second run, but the first was still good enough to leave the rest in their wake. Brazil was best of the rest, followed by the Kiwis, Russians, Japanese, Italians and Great Britain.

Russia dominated the under-19 category - finishing 24.77secs ahead of the Kiwis after penalties.

Turkey took third and the bronze, followed by the Czech Republic and Great Britain.

From Kawerau and the Tarawera, the under-23 and under-19 crews then headed off to New Zealand wilderness - the Rangitaiki River in Murapara - to face the ultimate crew and athlete test - the downriver.