Tauranga Girls' College sprinter Abby Goldie cannot wait to get her black singlet after being named in the New Zealand medley relay team for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, in July.
Goldie will be joined in the team, to contest a number of international meets in Germany in the build-up to the event, by schoolmate Amy Robinson (medley relay) and Cambridge High School student Talia Horgan, while Tarryn Davey of Waikato Diocesan School has also been selected to run the 800m.
The speedster is at a loss to explain why Tauranga has such a wealth of sprinting talent, with Joseph Millar and Mariah Ririnui taking the crowns of New Zealand's fastest man and woman at the recent New Zealand Track and Field Championships.
"I don't know. They just all seem to be here, which is good for competition," said Goldie.
July's youth championships are a major step on the path to next year's IAAF World Junior Championships to be held in Oregon, in the US, in July, which Goldie is targeting in the 100m and 200m as stepping stones to qualification for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The high performance athlete narrowly missed the qualifying mark of 11.96 seconds to run the 100m in Donetsk, but will have a number of chances among high-class competition to break through the 12-second barrier in the month preceding the event.
Goldie has had a busy year that is not going to get any less cluttered.
She would normally be taking it slightly easier over the winter, but with having to stay in top shape to compete against European competition during their season - and then having to attend a national sprint camp later in the year before a tilt at the 100m and 200m double at the secondary school nationals - she is not likely to slow down any time soon.
Goldie, who leaves for Europe in a month after never having gone further than Australia, says breaking the 11-second mark is her ultimate goal.
