Daredevil Dawson leads Kiwi charge at Games | Bay of Plenty Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Bay of Plenty

KAYAKING

They're calling it "Downunder dominance" and for the second year in a row, Mike Dawson was leading the charge.

The Tauranga kayaker has captured the down-river title at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado, adding to the steep-creek title he won last year.

WIth Rotorua's Sam Sutton finishing second in the down-river and winning the steep-creek and fellow Bay of Plenty paddlers Nikki Kelly and Johann Roozenburg also featuring, it capped a vintage campaign for the Kiwi contingent.

"It was great to share the podium with Sam today - New Zealand was all class," Dawson said.

The 24-year-old was second in the down-river race last year but clocked a superb 15min 38.34sec time down Gore Creek, deep in the heart of the Colorado Rockies.

Sutton was 8.36secs further back, with American Tao Berman third in 15:46.70.

Dawson's title defence in the steep-creek race on the flooded Homestake River wasn't quite so smooth, however, striking serious paddle problems.

"I was fourth after the first run after hitting some rocks here and there and was pretty pumped for second runs to lay it down and try to join Sammy on the podium. A little rock hit at the top spun me out, and from here it just fell apart. I crashed and burned in the bottom drop, snapping my shaft, and I thought I was going to be swimming like a fish."

Sutton's performance was even more impressive, after a close-call training for the event last week when he got wedged between two rocks while descending the last waterfall on the fast-moving grade five whitewater river course.

"I almost drowned." Sutton said. "I was pretty glad to come to the surface - my helmet got ripped off and I had all the water pressure on me. It's the first time in three years I have been in that situation and had to swim out of the kayak because you're going to die."

With unseasonably warm temperatures in Vail, organisers had to call off yesterday's whitewater racing because of high country snowpack runoff, dangerously high water levels and significant debris in Gore Creek.

"This Colorado (water) scares me," Sutton said. "I've been in water all around the world and I've never seen rocks that just want to eat your face off. You're just paddling and those rocks are saying, 'I'll knock your teeth out'."

The Kiwis are due to head for Europe this week with the World Freeride Kayaking championships in Italy. Sutton, Dawson and Kelly will be defending the world teams title.