When Sarah Carli took out the 400 metres hurdles at the Canberra Track Classic a month ago, she surprised nearly everyone at the track.
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Not only had she defeated 400m hurdles superstar Lauren Wells, but Carli had run a World Championships qualifying time.
Now with the Kembla Joggers runner returning to the track at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday, Carli knows the pressure will be on to repeat that performance.
"I'm really excited, it's always nice competing in Sydney in front of friends and family," Carli said.
"Doing a PB is always nice, but running something consistent to what I ran the other week is the main goal. It's great to do a time once, but to do it again is the most important thing."
Carli’s journey to running a World Championships qualifier has been a winding one, a World Youth Championships silver medalist in 2011, the 24-year-old was almost lost to the sport during her university years.
As a mounting injury toll and the stresses of managing university life and work at Costco built up, athletics took a backseat in Carli's life.
After graduating from uni in 2017 and starting work as a financial adviser, Carli found she could dedicate herself to elite running once again.
As the training intensified, Carli's times began to plummet and she surpassed the peaks of her junior career. She secured a bronze medal at last year's Australian Championships before making an impressive start to the 2018-19 season, culminating in a one-second personal best in Canberra.
"I was at uni, I was working as well, I struggled to fit it all in. Now, I've got my routine back, working 9-5 is the biggest difference.
"When I'm not studying, it's a lot easier to manage. I'm studying again at the moment though, so there are times I get a little bit overwhelmed, but you get through it."
The dominant force in Australian 400m hurdles throughout the past decade, Wells has acted as a carrot for Carli.
Get to Wells' level and the representative honours would follow.
Now she’s arrived there, Carli knows the challenge will be to not just stay at that level, but kick clear. She hopes to begin that journey on Saturday night.
"Lauren's always been the standard, she's always been so much further in front of the rest of the field. It's not necessarily a goal to beat someone, but I knew if I was able to beat Lauren, I'd be at that standard.
"She's the standard I had to get to if I was to take that next step as an athlete. Now I have to run consistently at that level between now and World Championships."