Nicole Begg broke through to take first spot in Colombia. File Picture / Hawke's Bay Today
New Zealand has a new world champion.
Timaru inline skater Nicole Begg won the gold medal in the 1000m sprint at the world championships in Colombia.
It's her second world title after she won the 10,000m points elimination race in Korea last year.
She was also second in
the sprint.
Another New Zealander, Scott Arlidge of Mt Wellington, Auckland, won a silver medal in the points race at the weekend.
Begg, 19, was a subject of international focus this year when she posed naked for an international skating magazine in an attempt to attract sponsors and promote her sport.
It was all worthwhile, she said yesterday, after a sensational victory by a hundredth of a second from hometown hero Bridgette Mendez.
"I did it! I did it!" she said last night. "It's just sinking in.
"I'm so happy. Hopefully, people will take a bit more notice of skating. We [New Zealand] are pretty strong in the sport but we don't get much media when it comes to the sport."
Begg said it took a while to confirm she had won because there was contact by two others in the race.
"To be honest, I didn't know I had got there. It was close and she [Mendez] was not only the raging favourite but the hometown kid. I think I was still fourth or fifth around the last corner and then I just dived through a gap in the final few metres.
"I was over the moon when the result was announced but I'm only realising now just how good it is to win."
Begg comes from a skating family. Her mother, Cheryl, won three world titles and her father, Bill, is a top coach.
She said she had completed a 15km race, coming in fifth, just an hour before her sprint race.
Begg was ranked No 2 in the World Cup rankings this year, up from seventh in 2004 and third in 2005.
One of her major achievements came two years ago when she won the gruelling 111km race, regarded as ultra-distance in the sport, in St Gallen, Switzerland.
- NZPA
