New Zealand Team athletes impress in the water, on the snow and at Sydney Rugby Sevens

In a thrilling final day of play at the HSBC Sydney Sevens, the All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens combined to claim double gold and take the lead in the Sevens World Series standings.

The Black Ferns Sevens set up a final showdown against Australia. It was five all after early exchanges before the Black Ferns Sevens launched, Michaela Blyde running in three tries and Stacey Waaka nabbing two on the way to a 34-10 victory.

Coach Allan Bunting said the maiden World Series title on Australian soil was sweet.

“It doesn't get much harder than beating Australia in Australia, and we hadn’t won the Sydney event before so it's a great moment.”

In the men’s Cup Final, the All Blacks Sevens faced USA, who had bundled them out of the Hamilton tournament just a week prior.

Down to just 10 players, the All Blacks Sevens produced another determined defensive effort that laid the platform for the 21-5 victory.

The golden effort sees both teams claim full points for the overall series standings, the Black Ferns Sevens leading the Women’s Series and the All Blacks Sevens sit in equal first position with USA.

Back home Peter Burling and Blair Tuke made a dominant start to their Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign as they returned to competition in the 49er.

They won six of the 11 races at the New Zealand Sailing Regatta to finish 14 points ahead of their nearest competitors.

 “It’s been a little like riding a bike; a lot of things come back really quickly. At the end of the day you need to put in a lot of time and that’s we’ve been doing over the last four or five months,” said Burling.

“It’s been really cool to do a regatta down here and it’s great to have such a high calibre fleet here in New Zealand. It’s been really cool to battle it out and come away with a win this time.”

The pair head to Europe shortly to measure themselves against the rest of the 49er fleet, starting with April’s Princess Sofia regatta in Palma.

Meanwhile Burling and Tuke’s Rio sailing teammates picked up two silver medals at the Miami Sailing World Cup.

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech were second in the women's 49erFX, with Sam Meech also collecting silver in the men's Laser.

Another silver was won on the BMX track as Sarah Walker placed second at the Oceania’s in Te Awamutu, clocking a time of 35.059.

On the snow New Zealand freeskier Finn Bilous finished fifth in Big Air at the Utah 2019 Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships.

It was the first World Championship event for Big Air, following the International Olympic Committee’s decision last year to add the discipline to the Olympic programme for Beijing 2022.

Bilous (Wanaka) landed a switch right triple 1440 and a forwards triple cork 1440 for a combined score of 179.75 from a possible 200 points.