It was a dramatic morning in the showjumping at the 2019 Badminton Horse Trials where dropped rails and time penalties saw a shakeup at the top of the leaderboard and no Kiwis on the podium.
The 70th anniversary of the iconic event saw Andrew Nicholson and 11-year-old Swallow Springs as the best of the Kiwis, in fifth place on 35.8 penalty points.
Nicholson came into the showjumping in fourth place, but the stunning grey took two rails to finish the day on 35.8.
"He was very babyish on the first bit of the course," said Andrew, who last won Badminton in 2017.
"He only just showed his inexperience a bit and wasn't really concentrating (early on) but for the second part of the course, he felt very smart, like he can do. He will learn a lot from it."
Overall he was very pleased with Swallow Springs who was “youngish at this level”. The two will now look to Burghley.
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy were the next best for New Zealand – they came into the showjumping in sixth spot, but 12 jump penalties and 1.2 time saw them finish the day on 43.3 in 10thplace.
In Poland the New Zealand boxing team picked up a gold and a silver at the Feliks Stamm Tournament.
In the men’s 91KG category two-time Commonwealth Games Gold medallist David Nyika defeated Tomasz Niedzwiecki from Poland in a unanimous decision.
In the 75KG final Emile Richardson lost to his Swedish opponent to pick up a silver.
23 year-old Nyika also picked up the award for ‘Best Boxer’ at the tournament.
The Kiwis are now off to Rome for further European bouts.
In France Sam Meech continued his medal winning habit, taking silver at the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères.
The 28-year-old World Number One came into the medal race in second and managed a sixth place to keep the position.
New Zealand's Tom Saunders was second in the medal race to finish seventh overall and George Gautrey ended the week in 10th.
Not only was the regatta this week his first of the European season but also first since knee surgery. He won three races all week, and was in the top three in five others.
Meech was satisfied with his week apart from one day.
"For me, it was that Thursday [when I got two 13th places], one bad day. But otherwise I'm pretty happy with how I sailed the rest of the week."
The New Zealand squad now head to Porto for the Laser European championships and will then switch their attentions to Japan for a series of events including the Laser world championships and Olympic test event.
Meanwhile Tom Walsh took second behind Ryan Crouser in the first Diamond League clash of 2019.
Walsh posted a best throw of 22.06m in Doha, just 7 cm behind Crouser's best of 22.13m.
In Puerto Rico the Tall Ferns 3x3 basketball team placed third at the Asia Cup, to secure a spot at the 2019 World Cup.
The team beat Brazil and Puerto Rico in pool play to book a semi-final spot against Spain but were unable to keep up, going down 16-14.
In their third place playoff against Brazil the Kiwis won a low scoring 11-5 game to book the World Cup spot.