The Auckland triathlete Dylan McCullough has won his second medal at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, picking up silver in the mixed relay as a part of the Australian-New Zealand team.
New Zealand-Australia Youth Olympics triathlon team. L to R Charlotte Derbyshire, Dylan McCullough, Brea Roderick and and Joshua Ferris. Photo: NZOC
Oscar Guo, 17, also picked up a silver for New Zealand in the badminton team relay event.
The Aucklander played in two doubles matches in the gold medal final of the badminton relay format, with the first team to 110 points crowned winner.
Guo played aggressively but his team went down in a tight game 110-106.
The team of McCullough, fellow New Zealander Brea Roderick and Australians Charlotte Derbyshire and Joshua Ferris, finished 20 seconds behind a European team to take silver.
McCullough had won the men's event earlier this week.
The Oceania combination were an outside chance for a medal in the morning - after their individual results from earlier in the week saw them ranked sixth in the line up.
The favourites, and eventually team gold medallists, Europe, were all already silver and bronze medallists, following the individual event earlier in the week.
"On paper they were a lot better than us," McCullough admitted. "We put on our A-Game today and it paid off - silver, we're stoked."
Australian racer Derbyshire set the tone from the start, racing an incredible leg to put the team in a top five position, despite falling ill before competition.
"I definitely wasn't feeling 100 percent coming into the race," Derbyshire said. "I'm really happy with how I competed and how the team competed as well… I'm super stoked with it."
Brea Roderick NZL tags Joshua Ferris AUS during the Triathlon Mixed Relay Continental Team Event at 2018 Youth Olympics, Buenos Aires. Photo: OIS
Individual gold medallist McCullough took off on the second leg and made up a staggering 50 seconds, to put the 'Kiwi-Roos' in the lead.
"I was feeling a lot of pressure," said Roderick, who raced third. "I didn't want to let my team down, so I just gave it my all."
Heading into the deciding leg, Ferris took off on the swim neck and neck with Europe for gold.
"I just went as hard as I could from the start, [the team] made a good lead and I'm just so stoked with a medal."
