The nine-year-old Aucklander Rico Bearman has won his third world title in four years at the UCI BMX World Championships in Birmingham.
The Waitakere club rider had previously won the 5-6 years world title in Adelaide and the seven years class in South Africa before earning a bronze medal in Copenhagen last year.
Bearman's gold was one of five medals for the New Zealand team on the first day of competition at the indoor NIA Arena.
Rotorua's Caitlin Flavell won the silver medal in the girls seven years category and another Rotorua rider, Lachlan Sevens-McNab, also took silver in the eight years boys.
Rebecca Petch of Te Awamutu won silver in the 14 years girls, while Ryan Martin, also of Te Awamutu, won the bronze racing in the boys 10 years class.
The rest of the age groups race tomorrow ahead of two days of elite racing before finishing with the cruiser class.
New Zealand hosts next year's World Championships indoors at Vector Arena in Auckland in July.
