New Zealand high jumper Hamish Kerr goes viral after bailing out last minute and jumping UNDER the bar - before leaping to Olympic gold just minutes later

Olympics fans have been left baffled by a high jumper who bailed out at the last second and jumped underneath the bar with some comparing his dive onto the mat to a child 'running to their bed'.

Hamish Kerr was competing in the event at the Stade de France when, unsurprisingly, the bar was raised as the final hotted up.

The New Zealand athlete then inexplicably acted like he had never taken part in the discipline before and pulled out of his jump, instead opting to leap under the bar and land on the comfortable-looking blue mat.

Incredibly, Kerr later refamiliarised himself with the event he has spent years of his life practicing and cleared the height, securing a memorable gold medal for his country on the final night of the athletics in Paris.

Now social media users have reacted with amusement to the bizarre incident.

One posted the clip of the hilarious moment and said: 'When someone tells me the bar has been raised and they believe in me.'

Another posted: 'Simulation confirmed. Wrong button was pressed.'

On a similar note, one user said: 'Bro's controller died.' 

And a fourth replied: 'That one time they actually make you do the things you said you were good at on your resume.'

Another added: 'Bro was running for his bed.'

One user pointed out that the incident would take the spotlight away from Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn, who became a figure of fun on social media after her unique routine failed to score any points from the judges.

They said: 'That Australian break dancer is so happy right now.'

Remarkably Kerr ended up winning the field event after clearing a height of 2 metres 36cm.

He pipped US rival Shelby McEwan to a memorable gold medal after the American jumped the same height and the contest went to a sudden death round.

This was a departure from the conclusion of the event in Tokyo three years ago when Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi decided to split the gold medal when the scores were tied.

The deciding round ended up being somewhat of a marathon with neither jumper getting close to clearing the 2m 36cm height as they took turns to have a go while waiting for track events to conclude.

When the bar got dropped to 2m 34cm, Kerr eventually produced a gold-medal winning jump to end the lengthy contest. 

Meanwhile, Qatar's Barshim secured a bronze thanks to his 2m 34cm jump in the regulation rounds at the Stade de France tonight.