It was a case of all or nothing when Queanbeyan's Andrea Thompson took her place on the starting line in the women's under 20's heptathlon's 800 metre event.
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Win by at least three seconds and the gold medal was hers. Anything less and the best she could hope for was silver.
As Thompson set off she could hear everything - the announcer, the crowd, the panting of her opponents - but before long she left them in her wake.
Thompson "just snuck in" to claim first place in the seventh and final heptathlon event by just over three seconds for a gold medal finish.
Doing it in the final heptathlon event "made the win a lot sweeter" for the teenage sensation, who hopes all her bad luck has gone out the window leading into the open women's long jump final on Sunday.
"There wasn't really anyone to run with so I kind of just had to go out by myself and pretty much just run blind, as fast as I could," Thompson said.
"My under 20's long jump was okay, it didn't go exactly to plan with five fouls of course, that's never the best. My first day of the heptathlon didn't go to plan, the weather was a bit crazy through a few events.
"But yeah, [on Friday] everything went pretty well to plan so I guess I used up all my bad luck."
The former Karabar High School student clinched gold in an event that certainly isn't her favourite - she considers herself a sprinter - but starred in plenty more.
Thompson won the 800m, 200m, and long jump, finished second in the 100m hurdles, fourth in javelin and high jump, and sixth in shot put.
Competing in so many different events has been a huge learning curve for the ACT representative, juggling one of the more bizarre training schedules you will see.
"I've been caught up in long jump for a few years and not everything was going to plan, so it was good to have a bit of a fresh start," Thompson said.
"I probably train about four days a week at the moment and you don't really designate one event to a day, I usually do two or three on the day. It keeps it interesting."
The veterinary nursing student has a rest day on Saturday before competing in the women's long jump final, and she'll spend it at the track cheering on teammates, "doing assignments and all the boring stuff".
