Lewis Clareburt has delivered in stunning style on the promise he has long shown, storming to victory in the 400m individual medley in Birmingham with a new Games record time of 4:08.70.
The 23-year-old Clareburt started strong, leading the field at the end of the butterfly leg, albeit by a slim margin.
That margin remained after the backstroke as he led Smith by just 0.67s going into the breaststroke; a leg which proved to be decisive for Clareburt as he extended his lead to several metres over Smith.
With 50m left in the freestyle, Clareburt led by 1.67 seconds and never looked back in claiming the historic win.
Australia's Brendon Smith won silver, 1.45 seconds behind Clareburt, while Scotland's Duncan Scott claimed bronze.
With victory, Clareburt ended a 16-year drought in the pool for Kiwi men, becoming the first to claim gold at the Commonwealth Games since Moss Burmester in 2006.
In the three editions since, Dame Sophie Pascoe has picked up five, with Lauren Boyle the only other New Zealand swimmer to stand atop the dais.
Clareburt always loomed as the man to make that same climb.
He burst on the scene by winning bronze in the 400 IM on the Gold Coast four years ago, before coming agonisingly close to earning an Olympic medal last year.
In Tokyo, Clareburt swam a national-record time of 4:09.49 in the heats, which would have been good enough for silver the next day. But following a sleepless night, he struggled to find his usual explosiveness in the last lap of the final and faded to seventh.
The Wellingtonian confirmed he belonged in the top tier of medley swimmers at last month's world championships in Hungary, overcoming a bout of Covid to finish fourth in the 400 IM final with a time of 4:10.98.
That was the fastest of any athlete from the Commonwealth with Smith, the Olympic bronze medallist, 0.38s behind in fifth.
Smith was again on Clareburt's heels after today's heats in Birmingham. While the Kiwi dominated from start to finish and advanced as the fastest qualifier, the Aussie was 0.6s back to reiterate his danger.
The other chief threat loomed as six-time Olympic medallist Scott. He didn't feature at the world championships, dealing with his own Covid case, but showed no lingering ill effects in winning the 200m freestyle earlier in tonight's session.
Clareburt will now turn his attentions to the 200 IM, in which he finished seventh in Hungary after an eighth-place result in Tokyo.
Earlier in the evening session, 18-year-old Cameron Gray stunned Kiwi fans - and himself - by seizing bronze in the 50m butterfly.
Gray was the seventh-fastest qualifier for tonight's final and was swimming out of lane one, but produced a spectacular final 25m to earn a podium place by the finest of margins.
"I had to take my goggles off and get a better look," Gray said of his immediate reaction. "My vision's normally perfectly fine, but I just had to double check.
"It's just unreal. I didn't think I'd get this far so it's just a real treat."
Gray stopped the clock in a personal-best time of 23:27, 0.46s behind England's Ben Proud and 0.01s ahead of fourth-placed Dylan Carter.
"I thought I did a really good job in the semis and to top that performance would be really challenging, but I just surprised myself," Gray said.
The Games debutant was raucously greeted by Kiwi teammates in the mixed zone, wrapped in a flag and a hug by Dame Sophie Pascoe, and he hinted there would be a decent celebration to follow.
"Rumour has it that the boys are on tonight."
Andrew Jeffcoat fell agonisingly short of the podium in the Men's 100m backstroke final, finising in fourth place with a time of 54.13 which was .07 seconds behind Australia's Bradley Woodward in third. South Africa's Pieter Coetze won with a time of 53.78.
