Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Rafting gold medal haul for Kiwis

Rotorua Daily Post
21 Nov, 2013 07:36 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

New Zealand crews made the most of any home water advantage on the Kaituna River at Okere Falls to secure three individual gold sprint medals from the four available at the 2013 World Rafting Championships.

New Zealand's Open Men's crew - which featured the Sutton brothers from Rotorua - the
men's and women's masters crew all took gold medals in the sprint - which took in a run of around two and a half minutes through some of the most challenging sections of the Okere River - normally known in rafting and action sports circles as the Kaituna.

Backing up the amazing home performance was the women's open crew which took a bronze medal for the sprint behind Great Britain and Japan.

New Zealand's slick open nen's crew clocked the fastest time of the day - a blistering 2 min 13.81 sec - to take gold ahead of a delighted Canadian crew and the current overall World Champions Japan. The United States in fourth, Brazil, Great Britain, Russia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Chile rounded out the top ten in a highly competitive 21 raft international field.

Behind the Kiwis in the men's masters category were silver medal winners the Czech Republic and bronze medallists Japan. In the women's masters, New Zealand beat the only other entrant, Russia.

The biggest cheer of the day went to the Iranian Men's Open crew in their first world championships rafting event. All of the crew members - Bahrami Behnam, Ghsemi Mohammad, Hasseini Manidreza, Keyvanpoor Milad, Aslani Payam and Esmaeelzade Hossein - have rafting experience, but choice of challenging rivers in Iran is limited to say the least.

After a solid if very tentative start, one of their crew was thrown out of the raft and unfortunately sustained a minor shoulder injury. He was fine, but needed further medical evaluation before committing to continuing in the competition on Friday.

Day one though, was all about the sprint. In white water rafting, there are four disciplines - the sprint, the head to head, the slalom and the down river. Each counts as an individual event, but also contributes a percentage of the overall crew score and it is this final score which determines the Overall World Champions.

The Sprint is worth 10 per cent, the head to head 20 per cent, the slalom 30 per cent and the Down River 40 per cent of the final scores.

New Zealand's winning crews were: Men's Open: Paul Roozendaal, Bernd Sommer, Jamie Sutton, Sam Sutton, Joel Flamank and Tim Pickering. Men's Masters: Nick Chater (Capt), Paul Eames, John Snook, Dai Edwards, Maika Nuku and Marty Hellier. The Women's Master Crew comprises Corina Gage, Kim Chater, Sarah Uhl (Capt), Shona Brett, Melanie Grant and Marie Fornusek.

Discover more

World Rafting Champs: U23s eye overseas competition

13 Nov 05:00 PM

Hearty welcome for competitors

13 Nov 07:00 PM

Rafting: Kiwis secure 2 gold, 1 silver

17 Nov 05:00 PM

World Rafting Champs: Kiwis in fight to tame raging river

21 Nov 09:18 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save
    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Rotorua Daily Post

Chiefs confirm successor to Clayton McMillan as coach

Rotorua Daily Post

'Go one better': Bay of Plenty Steamers fired up for NPC season

Rotorua Daily Post

'That's mana': Club spirit drives historic rugby win


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Chiefs confirm successor to Clayton McMillan as coach
Rotorua Daily Post

Chiefs confirm successor to Clayton McMillan as coach

It leaves the Crusaders as the only franchise yet to decide the future of their coach.

20 Jul 08:00 PM
'Go one better': Bay of Plenty Steamers fired up for NPC season
Rotorua Daily Post

'Go one better': Bay of Plenty Steamers fired up for NPC season

19 Jul 06:09 PM
'That's mana': Club spirit drives historic rugby win
Rotorua Daily Post

'That's mana': Club spirit drives historic rugby win

19 Jul 08:10 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP