Year 12 Mt Aspiring College student Phoebe Laker is preparing to qualify for the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon in August next year.
She was recently awarded the Air New Zealand Dream Seat, which will cover her flights when she hopefully makes it into the championships.
In order to qualify, she needs to run 400m in 55 seconds, something she feels confident is possible.
‘‘I have to run the qualifying time, but I should be comfortable to qualify as long as I don’t get injured or anything,’’ she said.
She had great success earlier this year during the Australian National Athletics Championships where she completed the 400m race in 53.87sec.
The Wānaka athlete also broke several records last summer season including the Otago women’s 15, 16 and 17-year age group records with her 400m time of 56.40sec at the Caledonian last month.
She said it felt like a natural next step for her to aim for the World Championships in Oregon.
World Juniors was the next progression, she said.
‘‘That would probably be my big one for this season and then I would probably go again next season, just to try and do better.’’
With a rigorous training schedule, Phoebe was either on the track or at the gym about five days a week alongside her coach Michael Beable with the Aspiring Athletics Club.
She had been running for about five years after discovering a passion for the sport during school athletics.
‘‘I kind of just started because it was like something that I was good at, and something I enjoyed, and then I just figured out I had a bit of a talent for it,’’ she said.
As she looked to start Year 13 next year, she was also excited to continue her athletic career not only in college but university as well.
