A former Green Island man won New Zealand's first gold medal at the Invictus Games yesterday.
Former army private Glenn Barnes, who now lives in Christchurch, won the one-minute rowing event as a member of the New Zealand Defence Force team at the event for injured or sick armed service men and women in Orlando, Florida.
The rowing race was only Mr Barnes' seventh time using a rowing machine.
He was already a champion in wheelchair tennis, but the win was "incredibly exciting'', he said.
"This isn't a sport I competed in before joining the team.''
Mr Barnes, who was left a paraplegic after a private motor vehicle accident, rowed 253m to win gold.
After he received his medal, New Zealand supporters in the stands performed a haka for him, he said.
Earlier, Chief Petty Officer Amy Baynes, originally from Gore, won two silver cycling medals.
Her wins in the women's cycling time trials and the women's criterium cycling were the second and third medals she had received at the games after winning a bronze medal in 2014.
A member of the Royal New Zealand Navy, CPO Baynes was injured in a fall while on patrol in Afghanistan.
The wins were "mind-blowing'', she said.
"Before the race, I was considering pulling out. I didn't think I had it in me, but I thought about my kids all the way around the course.
"I did it for them.''
The games finish tomorrow.
