Sprinter Grace Carter enters this weekend's Warrnambool and Terang Gifts in strong form.
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The 15-year-old - representing Warrnambool squad Inner, Speed and Power - is competing in the 120-metre open women's feature at both events.
Her goal is to at least make one of the finals of the five events she's entered in.
She's also got the 120m mixed and 300m mixed under 18 events at Warrnambool's Friendly Societies' Park on Saturday.
That's followed by the 120m mixed under 18s on Sunday at Terang Recreation Reserve.
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Carter, also an Athletics South West Turbines member, has posted a trio of personal bests in the past month at Athletics Victoria Shield League (AVSL) meets in Geelong.
She ran a 13.03-second 100m, a 26.62 200m and a 62.83-second 400m.
"It's really good just to get a bit of confidence at the start of the season," she said.
She said the coronavirus pandemic-impacted year gave her a chance to hone in on her sprinting.
"It's just a lot easier to focus during COVID because you just have nothing else to do so you're just focusing on training the whole time," she said.
"I did a lot of work at home and I would go to an oval twice a week and do some endurance and starts, I'd meet up with coach Jeremy (Dixon) once a week."
While she made the most of alone time, she's relished being around her teammates again at training.
"It's really good to get more social and be able to use the proper track," she said.
Carter enjoys competing in both the AVSL track and field events on offer as well as the professional running events in the Victorian Athletic League (VAL).
"Usually at Geelong it's the same faces but that's why I like doing a mix of VAL and AVSL because you just get to meet a mix of people," she said.
She only starting racing in the 120m women's open category in the past year.
Warrnambool was her debut at that level and she took lessons from the experience.
"It was really good just to get used to running in a smaller gift and at Stawell this year I made the women's gift semi-finals," she said.
It was Carter's fourth time at Stawell earlier this year and her first in the open women's category.
"I was obviously a bit more nervous because I've just grown up watching it on TV my whole life so it was really cool to be able to run there myself," she said.
"We have a friend - Paddy Turner - who has been competing there for a while and we've been going there for a long time and I've been competing for the past four years."
The Warrnambool College year nine student also competed at the Geelong, Parkdale and Ballarat gifts earlier this year.
Her best result was finishing fourth in the under 18 300m girls at Parkdale.
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