Ballarat sprinting sensation Cooper Sherman will represent Australia in the World Athletics Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
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The new national open men's 400m champion has been selected for the 4x400m.
He will wear Australian colours alongside Thomas Reynolds (Victoria), Alex Beck (Queensland), Luke van Ratingen (NSW) and Harrison Hunt (South Australia) at the May 4-5 meet.
Beck said the mix of youth and experience on the team had also bolstered the energy of each team leading into the Bahamas.
"It's a really exciting time because the team is young and hungry for a taste of international competition.
"The men's 4x400m team in particular has a storied history of success from the Silver Bullets in 2004, and our current team is filled with talent and the desire to leave their mark on the international stage," he said.
"If we can all reproduce the form we have shown during the domestic season, then we know the team has the ability to match it with the best in the world and we are excited to earn our spot for the Paris Olympic Games."
Australia needs to finish in the top 14 to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games.
Sherman's coach Neville Down said it was an incredibly exciting time for the 20-year-old.
He said Sherman had had an outstanding year.
"His rise has been much more rapid than expected."
Down said Sherman's main goal at the start of the year had been to qualify for the 400m final at the nationals.
"The Olympics were not on the radar - not at all."
Sherman has had an extraordinary 2023 - winning the Victorian and Vic Country 400m titles and 400m at the Sydney Track Classic on his way to becoming national champion, in addition to the Ballarat Gift on the Victorian Athletic League professional circuit.
Down said Sherman's personal best of 45.71 seconds at the Sydney Track Classic had confirmed to the wider athletics community that he was the "real deal".
Sherman flies to Sydney on Thursday and then leaves with the team on Friday for Miami, where they will have a pre-championships training camp - including the first time it will run as a relay team.
Sherman, who ran the 400m at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Colombia in 2022, will on his return from the Bahamas prepare for the Oceania championships in Fiji in June.
