Rafting: New Zealander Suzy Cumming jumps to aid of struggling Australian opponent at world championship

A sense of relief washed over Suzy Cumming as she lay down her paddle and celebrated with her teammates.

After 36 gruelling minutes on Cairn's Tully River, the New Zealand under-23 women's rafting team had claimed victory in the fourth and final race of the world championships, finishing four seconds ahead of Australia.

But as the Kiwi team congratulated one another on a job well done, Cumming glanced back to the Australian team.

Something wasn't right.

"They weren't all good. They were all crowded around one of the girls. They had taken her helmet off and had an inhaler," Cumming told the Herald.

A nurse at Tauranga Hospital by trade, the 22-year-old's instincts took over. She asked her teammates to paddle over to the Australian team, before boarding the opposition raft to lend a hand.

After paddling through the long, demanding race, a member of the Australian team was having an asthma attack. Cumming knew she had to act.

"I didn't think twice about it," she says.

"The team was all quite panic-stricken. I calmed everyone down a bit and helped the girl out; repositioned her because she was on the edge of the raft and could have fallen in the water. I repositioned her to kind of open up her airways and make sure her head wasn't dropping and gave her a bit of reassurance – calming her down and talking her through her breathing, administering her inhaler.

"By the time we got to shore her breathing had settled down a bit. There was a doctor on the shore and they called the paramedics. I stayed with her until the paramedics got there, then they took over."

Once they knew the Australian competitor was alright, Cumming and the Kiwi team got back to celebrating their race win. In winning the fourth race, the New Zealand crew claimed the overall silver medal for the competition, finishing 36 points shy of Indonesia in first place. The Australian team rounded out the top three.

It wasn't until the teams were on the podium that the two saw each other again and, while the teams were congratulating one another, the Australian athlete took the opportunity to thank Cumming for her help.

"She was looking a lot better on the podium than she was on the raft, that's for sure," Cumming says.

The under-23 women's crew was one of four Kiwi teams competing at the event. The under-23 men's team replicated the feat of the women in finishing second overall; the open women's team won the title, while the open men's team finished third.