When you're a 100-metre sprinter, time can be your friend or enemy, but for Kiwi athlete Zoe Hobbs, she can certainly do with more of it.
Hobbs needs to shed a matter of milliseconds – 0.17 seconds to be precise - from her personal best to realise her Tokyo dream.
She told 1 NEWS she’s up for the challenge though.
"I feel refreshed and I'm ready to hit it hard,” she said.
“I've got eight weeks, which isn't long at all."
The 23-year-old is back in training this week after equalling a near-30-year-old New Zealand record a fortnight ago, matching Michelle Seymour’s effort from 1993 at the national championships with an 11.32s.
"It was a pretty special moment because it's something I've been working on for a long time,” she said.
“I've kind of had my sights set on it since a kid, I've always wanted to be the best over 100m so to equal it, it was actually a bit of a shock."
Hobbs now has two months to prepare for three weekends of racing in Australia where she will need to run an auto-qualifier there of 11.15s if she's to make it to the Olympics.
So how do you get to 11.15s from 11.32s in the space of a few months?
"Hard work,” Hobbs said.
“Keeping the mind focussed and just looking to that end goal. In a 100, anything can happen - if you get the right conditions and piece together the right race, anything can happen.
“You can really luck it with conditions or really luck out.”
SHARE ME