Broulee's Jaylah Hancock-Cameron has overcome hurdles of regional living and touring to bring home the medals on her recent athletics tour of the UK.
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While she went overseas confident - her personal best times were some of the quickest amongst the field - Jaylah had to deal with the unforeseen difficulties of touring.
Leading up to race day, Jaylah's team was lacking common facilities such as a fridge or toaster in their accommodation, disrupting her pre-race routine.
Just to make the 22-person Australian touring squad, Jaylah had to overcome the obstacles of living rurally.
Her closest tartan running track is Canberra and most athletics competitions are held in Sydney.
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She travels to Sydney three times per month to challenge herself against the best competitors. With petrol prices rising, and having to find accommodation, the cost of running, like the cost of living, is increasing.
It's just another hurdle she is overcoming in her pursuit to one day represent Australia at the biggest stage.
When she finished second in the 2018 Youth Olympics 1500m, it dawned on her she could one day be an Olympian.
Everything - including her recent tour - is an opportunity to improve in the pursuit of that goal: To one day, match it with the best in the world.
"The UK tour was all a big learning experience," she said.
Honing race tactics
Jaylah has travelled a lot in the pursuit of race experience, and she was delighted to have the opportunity to race against some of the best athletes from the United Kingdom.
"We were able to try different race tactics and try to expand my knowledge and skill of racing," she said.
"Normally I just go out hard and run, but this was great race practice."
Going hard, early and leading from the front is a tactic she developed young.
As a junior athlete, Jaylah's personal best time was 10 seconds quicker than her peers, so tactics were less important to success.
"I used to go to the front and just lead the entire race," she said.
"Now I'm in opens, the races are completely different.
"A lot of the time you just sit in the middle of the pack and finish the last 400 super fast."
That was the tactic she used in two of her races overseas to great effect, taking the lead in the final few hundred metres.
"At that point, all you can do is hope no one catches up," she said.
In two of the three races, no one caught her. She was pipped in the last 50 metres to finish second in the England Athletics Championships.
Seeing Jaylah return to Broulee decorated with medals, it would be easy to think she was born to run. But she almost chose to pursue netball instead.
Choosing a passion
At age 14, Jaylah was playing netball for Broulee, representative netball for Eurobodalla and running casually for Moruya High School.
As netball began clashing with athletics, she had to choose a passion to pursue.
"I don't remember the first time I ran competitively," she said. "I just grew to love it."
She chose athletics, and began committing hours and hours of training to the sport, with one rest day per week.
Prior to her UK trip, Jaylah was running up to 70 kilometres per week: two training sessions at Hanging Rock, Batemans Bay, one in Ulladulla, and running by herself three other times per week.
In the final lead up to the competitions, she reduced the kilometres she was running, but increased the intensity, tapering her training to peak in the UK.
Now back on the south coast, she has resumed training after a three week break.
Her goal is to make an Australian Olympic or Commonwealth Games team - hopefully both.
"You can only try," she said.
When asked if she backed herself, she replied "always".