Hamish Kerr has smashed the New Zealand record, and equalled the Oceania record, to win gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
The 27-year-old jumped 2.36m, after earlier clearing 2.31m – a mark that was beyond his rivals Sanghyeok Woo and Shelby McEwen.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling,” Kerr told Breakfast, fresh off receiving his gold medal.
“We put processes in place and we set goals. For it to actually happen is something different.
“Once I cleared that bar at 2.36m, I was overcome with emotion.”
The stunning victory keeps him firmly on track for his Paris Olympics preparations.
“This was a competition block to try and get a good height and that’s why I tried to continue jumping after I’d won the medal.
“To balance the emotions of winning a first world title with continuing to jump was pretty hard to pull off.”
He had been hoping to be reaching that height “in the next couple of months”.
Kerr is just the third New Zealand World Indoor Champion, after shotputters Dame Valerie Adams and Tom Walsh.