New Zealand's rowers have made a winning start on the water in Paris, with double sculls pair Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis claiming a gold medal in the first of four finals for the Kiwis this evening.
It was an intensely tight finish as New Zealand held off the two-time world champion Romanians and Great Britain.
An emotional Spoors spoke to Sky Sport.
"Honestly it went by in just a flash, from the start we were so brave, we wanted to be brave and just put it all out there I felt so brave with Brooke through the middle and I just wanted to see what we could do and if it was enough. It was going to be enough."
Francis said it was close to the perfect race.
"I think we were literally taking it stroke by stroke, and I had this feeling in the last ten that we needed to go and they caught us up and we managed to hold off that final push from them."
Both women won silver in Tokyo, but went one better in 2024 crossing the finish in five minutes and 55 seconds.
The pair sat in third in the early stages, but powered in front at the halfway mark, to bag the country's second gold medal of the games.
Men's sculls fall short
Meanwhile, Aotearoa's second shot at a rowing gold came in the men's double sculls.
However, Robbie Manson and Jordan Parry would cross in sixth spot to end their Olympic medal hopes.
Spain took the early lead with the Kiwis back in sixth, a spot they were unable to progress from throughout.
Romania soon took over, with Ireland and the Dutch making up the front four.
With 1000m to go, New Zealand couldn't get out of sixth place, Romania and Ireland in a close battle for the gold.
It would be Romania to romp home in first, with the Netherlands taking Silver and Ireland bagging bronze.
