Emerging Launceston athlete Izzy Wing has set her sights on her Olympic dream after booking a possible ticket to the junior world championships at the recent national titles.
In a week where Tasmania flexed its muscles in multisport events, the Launceston 18-year-old's track and jumping prowess was enough to fend off Hobart silver medalist Bailey Van Den Broek in the under-20 heptathlon.
Whether she's on the plane for August's junior world titles in Oregon now rides on the discretion of Athletics Australia, who must decide whether she will be competitive after her career best 5458 points in Sydney.
"It's unbelievable, training was going well and we knew it was possible, but putting it all together on the day was fantastic," Wing said.
"It would mean everything (to compete at worlds). I'm an athletics fanatic, so to compete against the best and push myself over winter would be unreal."
Wing said she didn't put any pressure on herself to pull off the achievement, and has an eye on bigger things in the future.
"Heptathlon athletes usually don't peak until they're around 26 so it's keeping an eye on long term goals, not short term goals," Wing said.
"We made it pretty clear if I didn't make it this time around there's going to be bigger competitions coming up.
"People aren't going to remember the under-20 world champion, they're going to remember the world champion.
"Don't get me wrong this would be fantastic and a great experience, but it's bigger goals."
A major one for the North Launceston Athletics Club member is the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, but isn't ruling out a Games debut even sooner.
"Brisbane is definitely a long term goal, that would be ideal but not leaving anything out of the question. If I could get into 2028 that would be awesome," she said.
"(At training) we have a focus on speed and power, but also technical events like jumps and throws.
"Fitting it into the week along with gym stuff and also endurance work for 800 is very difficult to pack it all in. I'm training almost every day except Friday at the moment, and most days I have double or even triple sessions."
Wing has received offers to compete for American colleges, but seems unlikely to join Van Den Broek (University of Missouri) in taking that route.
"I've had a couple of offers from America, but I'm not sure if I'll take that up as I'm happy with how my training is going here," she said.
"I'm a big believer in why change something if it's going well."
Another Launceston athlete, Xavier Davie, also achieved world junior qualification after taking silver in the under-20 men's decathlon.
NETBALLERS HOLD OWN AT NATIONALS
Tasmania's netballers produced competitive displays at under-19 and under-17 level, but it was a Launceston product wearing the sky blue dress of NSW who stole the show.
Paige O'Neill, player of the match in the Cavaliers' Tasmanian Netball League grand final win last season, was named most valuable player in the 39-29 gold medal match win over South Australia.
O'Neill moved to Sydney this year to be a part of the NSW Swifts Academy and starred throughout the carnival at Melbourne.
At last year's tournament, Northern Hawks shooter Sophie Sherriff became the first Tasmanian to be named MVP for the under-17 division.
Tasmania finished sixth in the under-19s after grabbing a second win over the ACT, and also secured a victory against Northern Territory.
In the under-17s Tasmania placed seventh after losing a tight battle for sixth against ACT 31-28, before bouncing back with a 39-9 thrashing of Northern Territory.
BASKETBALL TALENTS DUKE IT OUT
Tasmania's men are competing in this weekend's classification rounds in Queensland. Their sole win came against South Australia Country 54-51 in their second-last pool game on Thursday.
The women are also in the classification games after falling just short by single figures in a number of tight clashes.
STANDOUT STARS
Izzy Wing (athletics): The Launceston athlete got her gold medal heptathlon campaign off to a great start by equalling the open hurdles state record of 13.87 held by Jo Miller-Cubit since 1985. She posted a world junior qualifier points total overall.
Xavier Davie (athletics): Launceston's Davie also posted a world junior qualifier and a new under-19/20 state record points total of 7236.
Paige O'Neill (netball): The former Cavaliers defender starred in her first tournament with NSW, and was named Most Valuable Player in their gold medal match win over South Australia.
Molly Green (netball): The Northern Hawks youngster was 19 and under co-captain alongside Cavalier and fellow defender Grace Ebbelaar, and their experience in the defensive circle kept the team in plenty of games.
Brydee McPherson (basketball): The Latrobe gun has been a handful for most teams at the under-18 nationals, averaging 13.5 points and 3.5 rebounds throughout the tournament.
Harry Blyth (basketball): Has been stuffing the stats sheet at the 18s nationals, averaging 13 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists in some all-round displays.