BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Australian golfers Grace Kim and Karl Vilips held their nerve in pressure-filled final rounds to secure gold medals in their respective events at the Youth Olympics here.
Vilips rallied late to beat American Akshay Bhatia by two strokes in the boys' individual stroke play while Kim secured a three-shot victory by closing out the girls' tournament on Thursday with a final-round 71.
"I was five [shots] back through 11 holes, then hit a ball out of bounds but made a 45-footer [putt] for bogey which turned everything around," said Vilips, who finished the tournament four under par. "I have never been so happy making a bogey."
Jerry Ji of the Netherlands grabbed bronze in the boys' event with a final score of one over par.
In the girls' competition, Kim finished one over par, comfortably overcoming the Philippines' Yuka Saso, Austria's Emma Spitz and Italy's Alessia Nobilo, who contested a playoff after tying for second at four over.
Nobilo eventually prevailed to secure the silver medal, with Spitz clinching bronze.
The results leave Vilips and Kim as firm favorites to win the mixed team competition starting on Saturday.
However Bhatia vowed to put up a fight alongside his partner Lucy Li, who became a global sensation when she competed in the 2014 US Open aged 11.
"It's going to be awesome playing with Lucy just because of how good she is," said Bhatia, who won this year's Junior Ryder Cup in partnership with Li. "How good we are going to be together is scary."
