With two sub-12 second times to her name, Ballarat teenager Armani Anderson is setting herself her greatest challenge yet, stepping up to open company for the first time.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At just 16, Anderson is seen as one of the rising stars of sprinting in this country, and will run onto her home track on Friday evening, ready to show the best sprinters in Victoria she is one of them.
Anderson is being trained by Ballarat's Gerrard Keating, who has recently returned home having guided prodigious young star Torrie Lewis in her own sprinting career.
He has now turned his attention to Anderson, who shows all the hallmarks of being another one of Australia's best young talents.
"I'm so grateful to Gerrard," she said. "He's made me so much more confident in myself, I feel stronger, heaps faster, I'm so grateful for everything he's done for me.
"He's worked on my technique, but he believes in me which helps me with my own belief.
"We do a lot of sled work, a lot of strength and power work. With the sled work, you're tied into a harness and it has weight on it, you pull it along the track, around 30-50m, then a walk back, then you go again. It's very good for explosive power.
"Every time I run he mentions my technique, whether it's knees up or chest up, stand up tall, he's very vocal which I love because he puts the image in my head and I can visualise what I'm doing. I'm so excited to see what we can do in the future."
Anderson recently took out a gold medal at the Australian All-Schools Championships in Perth with a personal best time over the 100m of 11.84 seconds. She is just the second Ballarat-based athlete (the other being Keating) to win an All-Schools event over 100m.
"I'd run an 11.99, but to be honest I didn't really count that because of the conditions which we ran in," she said.
"To go to Perth and run 11.84 in the final was amazing. I was so stoked with that time, I didn't expect I'd be able to go that quick at all.
"That's the sort of time I'm aiming at in the near future, if I can get something like that, I'd be over the moon."
Anderson said her goals for this week would be a little different than just bringing home a gold medal, giving herself an opportunity to see how she goes against the best runners in the state.
"Honestly any sub-12 this weekend would be amazing, but I'm just happy to see how I go against the others," she said. "I'm doing open this season, I haven't done it before, It's going to be bit nerve-racking.
"I don't know any of the competitors I'll be up against, it's going to be a whole new experience, but I'm going to enjoy it no matter what happens."
Anderson also plans to compete in the 200m, and if her 100m time is strong enough, hopes to get an invite into the 100 yard invitational on Saturday night.
She said short-term she would enter the Ballarat Gift on February 10 and 11.
"I've watched it every year, but I've not run a Gift before," she said. "I just think the experience will be so different to be actually competing in it.
"I love to be able to chase in my races, I'm really excited to see what I can do at that level."
The timed 100m finals will be held from 6pm on Friday.
