Jaylah Hancock-Cameron is officially an Olympian.
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The Moruya High School student was named as part of a 13-strong athletics squad for the upcoming Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games. She will headline the team alongside Canberra’s Kelly Small and Perth’s Sophie White.
Jaylah’s coach, Andae Kalemusic of Limitless Track Team, said this was “the biggest achievement she’s achieved to date”.
“Athletes who won the Oceania area were available for selection,” she said. “If you got second on the day, you couldn’t go, no matter how you did before that.
“She’s been very determined, and has trained very hard. To make the team is very exciting for all of us.”
Hancock-Cameron trains three times a week with Kalemusic, but it’s the hard work she puts in at home that makes the difference.
“This has been the result of a lot of hard work,” Kalemusic said. “When I’m not training her, she’s still doing the one-percenters at home, and that is what’s got her to Argentina.”
Despite the uptick in competition, Kalemusic said Hancock-Cameron had a good chance in Argentina.
“The world stage is very different to the Australian stage, but she’s ranked in the top four in the world for under 18s,” she said. “She has a good chance, and anything can happen on the day.”
Kalemusic will continue to train Hancock-Cameron up until she goes into camp, but her regime won’t change.
“We’d already been training towards the Olympics just in case she was picked,” she said. “We’ve also been doing a lot of cross-country training, because there’s a cross-country component to the race.”
The Athletics Australia National Junior High-Performance Manager, Sara Heasly, congratulated the athletes and officials that have been selected to wave the Aussie flag in Argentina.
“Congratulations not only to the 13 athletes selected to represent Australia at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, but also to their coaches and support teams,” Heasly said. "The Youth Olympics is a tremendous developmental opportunity for our junior athletes.”