Kayaking: Former champ back on podium

Bronze: Rotorua's Sam Sutton, No15, wins the bronze medal at the Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships. Photo / Supplied.

Rotorua's Sam Sutton has made a return to the podium at the prestigious Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships in Austria.

Sam is a three-time world champion at the event and last stood on the podium in 2012 when he won.

Last weekend, on the Wellerbrucke rapids, Sam finished third behind Gerd Serrasolses (Spain) and second-placed David Bain (Great Britain).

It was the second year in a row a Sutton brother has found their way on to the podium with Jamie Sutton winning bronze last year.

Now in its eighth year, the Extreme Kayak World Championship saw the largest number of competitors enter with 175 athletes from 30 different countries.

Mariann Saether (Norway) took out the inaugural women's title. Sam said he was rapt to be back on the podium this year.

"On my last run I actually felt a bit more like the old Sam Sutton. At the start of the day I was like 'man what is going on today?', but my partner Kat gave me some encouragement the whole way through, so that made it work out for the final.

"Of course you always want to win but I don't think I put in the hard work to get on top of the podium.

"Being a father is pretty easy for me, my partner does a really good job looking after our kids, but I have two businesses plus two other start-up companies. So my brain is quite far away from kayaking sometimes," he said.

"I am so stoked for Gerd. Of course I would have been happy to win, but I would have felt like I took the title away from the more deserving person.

"Gerd is by far the best kayaker on the planet at the moment, he is so consistent and you could see it out there, he just crushed every single round, so I am happy for him, he is such a good dude."

Sam's brother Jamie finished 11th overall while fellow Bay of Plenty kayaker, and Olympian, Mike Dawson finished ninth.

Serrasolses was the favourite throughout the weekend after putting in the fastest runs in the qualification, quarter-final and semifinal.

Serrasolses' final run (55.34 seconds) was a new course record beating Jamie Sutton's time set in 2013.