That run saw her become the first Australian in eight years to defeat a healthy Lauren Boden in a 400 metre hurdles race, Carli running a big personal best to qualify for the World Championships.

Carli went on to break her PB yet again at the World Championships, the Kembla Jogger progressing to the semi-finals where she ran a time of 55.43 seconds.

While she missed out on an Olympic qualifier by just three hundredths of a second, the 25-year-old is confident she will eclipse the mark as she builds towards the Tokyo Games.

"I'm feeling pretty confident after my performance at the World Championships," Carli said. "It's nice to come into a season confident, anything can happen, but I'll continue to work hard.

"The goal is to run a qualifier, I don't want to be sitting waiting for the roll down, but I also don't want to be chasing times too much. I'm quite highly ranked so I have two paths to Tokyo, but it would be good to get the qualifier."

Carli's year of racing is set to start at Saturday's Illawarra Track Challenge, where she is planning on lining up in the 400m flat race.

From there she will contest Athletics Australia's series of Track Classics, with races in Perth, Canberra and Brisbane, as well as the NSW and Australian Championships.

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With high-quality fields expected across all events for this week's competition at Beaton Park, Carli is excited to kickstart such a crucial year on her home track.

"I love racing in Wollongong, my family is coming down to watch, my Australian teammate Bendere Oboya normally comes and runs at this event. There's always good competition here.

"Beyond this weekend, I would really like to win an Australian title, that would be awesome, it's something as a senior athlete I've never done before.

"I would also like to go and run internationally leading into the Olympics, it would be good to get on the circuit and run in the Diamond League."

While many of the Illawarra's top athletes have moved interstate or travel to Sydney to train, Carli has been lucky enough to find a squad based in Wollongong.

Coached by former hurdler Mel Logan since she was 15, Carli said this makes the challenge of juggling full-time work and her aspirations to become an Olympian much easier to manage.

"I'm lucky where I work, Bob Reus & Co have been so supportive, it makes it less stressful knowing I can get time off and I wouldn't be here without Mel, even having her at World Championships was awesome.

"We have a nice group of girls that we train with, we all get on well and have a great time, which is important.

"It makes it so much easier being able to train 15 minutes from home, it makes such a big difference.

"We can be more flexible if someone has work, we can move things around and you always train better with other people."

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