Tauranga Boys' College student Thomas Saunders' gold medal at the Youth World Championships in Turkey last weekend sets him alongside some of the country's top sailors.
Thomas won in the largest fleet in the event, the 50 boat Boy's Laser Radial class.

Winning a gold medal in Turkey sets Tauranga sailor Thomas Saunders alongside some of New Zealand's best and most famous sailors. Photo courtsey Yachting NZ.

Other New Zealanders to have won gold in this event over its 40 year history include Russell Coutts in 1981, John Irvine in 1983, Stuart Bannatyne in 1989, Dean Barker in 1990, Dan Slater in 1994, Simon Small in 1996 and Sam Meech in 2009.
The win showed some good gritty performances by the Tauranga sailor after he started well, but slid to eighth on the second day. Thomas fought back to reclaim the lead on the second to last day, before eventually going on to win on the final day in a gusty offshore breeze ranging from eight to 14 knots.
He finished eighth in the final race, five points ahead of Keerati Bualong from Thailand for the silver and Giovanni Coccoluto of Italy for the bronze.
It's his last year in the youth Laser class and Thomas now has his eye on Olympic class.
I think I will move into the full rig international class for next year and see how I go then, hopefully to bigger things. This is my last youth year, says Thomas.
The trip was really good, really tough competition. The racing was really close.
I hadn't really heard of any of them before, so I wasn't so sure how I was going to go.
Over the last couple of days I managed to pull out a few good results.
Tom says the New Zealand sailors did a lot of training before departing for Istanbul in conditions similar to those expected at the venue - offshore breezes with fairly flat water.
When we went over there it turned out pretty well.
He wants to thank coach Ian Neely.
Alexandra Maloney and Sam Bullock are New Zealand's other medallists securing the silver in the exciting Open 29er skiff event in which 18 nations were competing.
Tauranga's Molly Meech placed 24th in the girls Laser in a field of 46.