Auckland discus thrower Connor Bell has dominated to field for a gold medal win which will make the world of professional discus take notice.
The 17-year-old threw 66.24m on the second day of competition to clinch an emphatic victory.
“I am absolutely stoked with how I went out there,” Bell said.
“I just feel like I’ve done an awesome job, coming out here and performing in front of the world’s best and I’m really proud of myself.”
At the Youth Olympic Games the discus is run across two days, with the athletes two highest throws added together to determine the winner.
Bell recorded a combined score of 133.08m from his throws, a dominant 18 metre victory.
“To get out on the board reasonably early in the competition was an absolute joy,” Bell said.
“I don’t like to count my chickens before they hatch..” Bell said. “After that first throw [today], you know that was a big one, and that helped me relax a little bit.”
Bell, who was coach by Dame Valerie Adams for a few months early in his career, admits he felt nervous coming into the Youth Olympic Games.
“There was quite a bit of pressure coming into this… a lot of emotion and I’m just pleased I was able to pull it off.”
Meanwhile the New Zealand U18 women’s sevens team has notched up another two wins to qualify for the gold medal match at the Youth Olympic Games.
The team beat France 24-12 then Canada 20-5 to be four wins from four games.
“We were fizzing for the games today and they were tough but the girls fought right to the end to get the job done,” said captain Risaleanna Pouri-Lane.
The team plays Kazakhstan in their final pool game tomorrow before meeting either Canada or France in the gold medal match.
The women’s rugby sevens will be live on Sky Sport Pop-Up 2 (Sky channel 056) from 0550 tomorrow.
Sharp shooting also saw New Zealander Rebecca Jones place 4th in the archery team competition.
“It was pretty exciting, I just went out there and relaxed and had fun shooting with my teammate,” said Jones.
The 17-year-old and her teammate from Chinese Taipei qualified for the bronze medal match but were unable to get the win.
Despite narrowly missing out on the podium spot Jones was thrilled with the 4th placing.
“Wow, I feel so awesome just for getting that far through.”
The Canterbury athlete began archery after watching the Hunger Games movie and being inspired by protagonist Katniss Everdeen.
The Gymnastics vault final saw another narrow medal miss for New Zealand.
Sam Dick lead the charge, with two vaults returning an average score of 13.700 - putting him in bronze position until the last competitor of the night pushed him into fourth.
“It was a little nerve wracking, it’s a huge crowd and leading the way in first,” Dick said.