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New Zealand have stamped their authority on the world stage, especially over transtasman rivals Australia, after the three days of pool competition at the World Lifesaving Championships in Berlin.
But the New Zealand team are determined to keep the pressure on the other teams vying for the coveted mantel of world champions.
Star swimmer Julia Toomey hopes they've got one more surprise in store and that is overall victory. New Zealand haven't beaten the Australian team since 1998.
Auckland-based Toomey had a demanding but very satisfying three days at Berlin winning an individual gold in the 100m rescue medley yesterday. Toomey's efforts along with their relay teams means New Zealand lead Italy in the overall standings and have a 55 point buffer over Australia. The New Zealand team ended the three-day pool component with six medals.
The team have a day off today before travelling to Warnemunde on the Baltic Sea coast near Rostock for the two days of beach events. Toomey believes New Zealand is in an ideal position and can keep the world champion Australians on the back foot, although it will be a massive challenge.
"Australia may have underestimated our strength on the beach though - they think we've turned up with a stacked pool team but we've got strength and power on the beach and we'll be aiming to win our specialist events," Toomey said. "We're treating each day as a separate competition - we won today, but we've still got two really tough days ahead of us.
"We're excited about the challenge now though - we've opened up a decent lead over Australia and our beach athletes are jumping out of their skin."
Toomey won the medley gold medal by just 0.1s in 1:16.24, in a thrilling finish from Italy's Erica Buratto. She also anchored the New Zealand women's relay team in their silver medal finish in the 4 x 25m manikin carry.
Otago's Andy McMillan added his second individual silver, in the 100m rescue medley, while team captain Glenn Anderson was just 0.5s behind in winning bronze.
The pair also helped the men's 4 x 25m manikin carry team to silver, edged out only by a world record swim from the strong Italian team.
Toomey's medley triumph was her first gold medal in two world championship campaigns and capped a hectic three days in the pool.
"We've just been trying to get as many athletes into A finals and keep the Aussies in the B finals - that really worked well today and the team is on a high," said Toomey. "I'm very tired after three big days but also feeling pretty fantastic.
"It was a great day for all of us and it was nice to get an individual gold at last and prove to all the other teams that we could actually do it, rather than just be relay specialists," she said. The men's relay team shattered the national record in the manikin carry by nearly 3s and only the Italians' second relay world record in as many days prevented them from adding their second gold.
McMillan also dipped under the national record with his rescue medley silver, posting a time of 1:04.03 to finish behind Italy's Federico Pinotti, who clocked 1:03.49. Anderson, who held the previous record of 1:05.58, also went under that time with a 1:04.53 effort for bronze.
Though New Zealand only edged ahead of Italy in the final event of the day - capturing silver in the SERC (simulated emergency rescue competition) - the European nations aren't expected to feature in the beach events, which start tonight.
