Lewis Clareburt has backed up his 2018 performance in the pool, elevating himself from a Gold Coast bronze to Birmingham gold in the men's 400m individual medley.
Clareburt entered Sunday morning's final as the fastest qualifier after a superb run on Saturday evening and got off to a strong start in the opening leg of the race in the butterfly, leading Australia's Brendon Smith as they transitioned into the backstroke by 0.4s.
That lead extended to 0.67s as they entered the breaststroke, where Clareburt really started to extend his lead on the fading Australian.
Entering the final leg - freestyle - the 23-year-old held a 1.7s lead and he didn't let up, coming home for gold in a time of 4:08.70 - a new Commonwealth Games record.
It's the third medal in the pool for New Zealand after Cameron Gray earlier won a bronze in the 50m butterfly and Dame Sophie Pascoe earned a gold in the 100m freestyle S9 on the opening day.
In New Zealand's other final in the pool on day two, Andrew Jeffcoat missed out on a bronze by 0.07s as he had to settle for fourth in the final of the men's 100m backstroke.
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