"The shoulder reconstruction, the stress fractures and then the two hamstring tears at the end of last year were pretty tough," she said.

"I did my right hamstring at The Gift and then a month later, in my first training session back I did my left one."

The bad luck resulted in some strong nerves for the 24 year-old ACT sprinter in the lead up to the race, but it was not to last with Broadhead's gruelling six-day training week preparing both her mind and body for the sprint ahead.

She also implemented a number of precautions in order to avoid injury or fatigue.

"I train six days a week, and that's four track sessions and two gym sessions," she said.

"But I still didn't think I was in as good shape this year as I was last year so I was pretty nervous to say the least,"

"Last year I entered into three different races, so this year I decided to cut back and I only ran the 70 metre and The Gift, and that really helped because I wasn't as sore and fatigued in the final."

She was the clear stand-out on day one of the heats, winning her afternoon dash in a convincing 13.7 seconds, but her recovered confidence waned after hearing of 17-year old track star Jessica Thornton's semi-final time.

"I was confident after the heats but then the girl that came second in the final, she had the fastest semi-final time so I was a bit nervous after that," Broadhead said.

"She's ranked number one in Australia for the 400 metres at the moment, so she had a pretty strong chance, she's a brilliant athlete"

"I finished with 13.61 and I think she was about 13.8, so if there was another metre in a race she would have got me. "

Broadhead has already returned to her training schedule, and has her sights set firmly on the 2016 Stawell Gift.

"My next goal will be to qualify for nationals and they're in March, and then ultimately the Stawell Gift at Easter time," she said.

"It's the big one."