Hamish Kerr has made New Zealand athletics history at the World Indoor Athletics championship in Serbia, becoming the first Kiwi to win a medal in the high jump.
Kerr matched his national outdoor record of 2.31m on Monday morning to make the podium, surpassing the 39-year-old national record previously held by Roger Te Puni.
"I am amazingly stoked and feeling a lot of relief because I knew coming into this competition I was in amazing form," Kerr said.
"I knew I was one of the athletes that had a quiet chance of doing well, so just to be able to execute the plan we put in place and to be able to get an awesome result is cool."
Monday was Kerr's first indoor competition of his career but the Kiwi looked comfortable among the world's best.
Only six competitors remained by the time the height was lifted to 2.31m and after clipping the bar with his heels in his first attempt, the 25-year-old soared over cleanly with his second jump.
“At 2.31m I always had the belief I could get it I just had to commit to my last few steps which has been an issue for me all season. I didn’t quite commit to the first attempt but I had a good sniff (of clearing).
"That second attempt I committed and it was one of the nicest jumps of my life.”
Hamish Kerr beat an almost four-decade old national record on his way to reaching the podium. (Source: 1News)
The effort was good enough for Kerr to finish alongside charismatic Italian Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi in bronze while 2022 world No. 1 Sanghyeok Woo of South Korea took gold with a 2.34m clear on his first attempt.
Swiss jumper Loic Gasch took silver after also clearing 2.31m but was ahead of Kerr and Tamberi on countback.
"That first time failure at 2.15m came back to haunt me because had I cleared it, I would have jumped up a position, but the thing is I’d never jumped indoors before, and it took me the entire competition to get used to the track," Kerr said.
"But with every jump I worked the track a little bit better."
Kerr added the bronze medal was still special to him.
“It is pretty special to win bronze. The journey I’ve had from being a high school athlete to going to uni and stepping away from the sport and having an amazing coach in Anne Thomson in Palmerston North who coaxed me back into the sport before handing the reins to Terry (Lomax) for the past few years has been some adventure.
"The commitment and dedication and hours he spent on me is testament to the people we have here in New Zealand.
"This goes out to my girlfriend, my parents my brother and two sisters I have a huge village around me it is cool that I can give back to them.”
Tom Walsh also won a bronze medal in the men's shot put late on Sunday night.
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