Masterton's Anne Cairns, left, was part of the New Zealand women's squad which has been awarded a belated bronze medal at the world rafting championships held in Costa Rica in October.
The Kiwis were the centre of controversy when they were "officially" placed fourth overall after being penalised 50secs for a missed gate offence in the slalom rather than the 5secs they deserved.
It was a costly administratrive mistake by officials as when the team's event was concluded New Zealand were deemed to have scored 742pts, leaving them trailing Czech Republic (841), Japan (780) and Netherlands (763). Protestations by the New Zealand camp over the situation fell on deaf ears and they were left with no alternative but to leave the matter in the hands of the International Rafting Federation with the hope that justice would eventually be served.
And Cairns was delighted to report to the Times-Age yesterday that the IRF had decided to uphold the New Zealand protest in the slalom, thereby moving them to second place in that sphere and third equal place with Netherlands in the team's event.
Cairns described the news as "pretty unexpected" and a relief that the team had got the result they had worked so hard to achieve.
