Oli Chignell will fulfil one of his biggest goals this weekend.
The 17-year-old John McGlashan pupil is one of two Otago secondary school runners representing New Zealand in the Australian cross-country championships in Melbourne.
He and Samantha Burke (15), of Mt Aspiring College, earned selection after finishing in the top 12 of their respective races at the national secondary schools cross-country championships in Dunedin in June.
Chignell finished fourth among a quality field in the senior boys race, completing the 6km course in 20min 33sec, and cannot wait to put on the New Zealand kit which arrived in the mail last week.
''First time getting that, it's definitely been a long wait. But it was really awesome to get that in the mail,'' he said.
Chignell will compete in the under-18 section (6km) in Melbourne, and will go into his last cross-country event this year in good form.
After his fourth-placed finish in the national secondary schools event, he became the youngest Edmond Cup winner in almost 100 years, won the Otago under-18 title and finished second in the under-18 race at the national cross-country championships in Christchurch earlier this month.
He will be up against a raft of Australians he has no idea about come Saturday, but believes a top-10 finish is realistic.
''Not too sure about what standard they are going to be at,'' he said.
''If I get top 10, I would be really happy with that. Of course, I'm always aiming to get first.''
Chignell has been battling the flu for most of the month, but said he was now fit and running ''fairly well''.
''I've been doing a couple of time trials recently, which have turned out some pretty good results,'' he said.
''I've just been trying to maintain that peak level that I was at at nationals. I went back into some longer mileage stuff and then a couple of weeks to taper again for the Aussie trip.''
Chignell plans to rest for a couple of weeks when he returns to Dunedin next week.
He had contemplated running the Dunedin half-marathon on September 13, but opted to rest his body with the start of the track season looming in October.
Burke, who will run in the under-16 (4km) race on Saturday, qualified for the trip to Melbourne after finishing fifth in the senior girls race in Dunedin.
She finished the 4km race in 15min 52sec to beat the majority of a field, which was stacked with runners one or two years older.
The Mt Aspiring College pupil also finished fourth in the 4km under-18 women's race at the national championships earlier this month.
In addition to running their respective races on Saturday, Burke and Chignell will run in the Australian all-schools relay on Monday.
The 21-strong New Zealand team leaves for Australia tomorrow.
