Calab Law has navigated through a tricky strain to get within a stretch of claiming a medal despite being forced to pull out of his favourite event at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth.
Carrying a suspect hamstring into the titles in which he scratched the 200 metres, Law crossed the line first in his opening 100-metre heat in 10.13 by two-hundredths of a second ahead of seasoned campaigner Josh Azzopardi in the all Queensland-New South Wales field on Friday.
The 21-year-old Queenslander backed up the initial win to run a second place in 10.19 to defending 100m champion Sebastian Sultana during one of the semi-finals on Saturday.
But Law slipped down the pecking order by Sunday into fourth place in arguably the most decorated track final of the West Australian meet.
The Wakka Wakka man all but tied for third with a time of 10.17 and had to be separated between the splits, falling two-thousandth of a second behind Azzopardi.
Former national champion Rohan Browning similarly edged out Law's training partner Lachlan Kennedy to win by five-thousandth of a second after both men had recorded 10.01 times.
Both Law and Kennedy have been pushing each other at the Mayne Harriers Athletics Club in Brisbane over recent years.
That camaraderie was tested two weeks ago in Melbourne with Kennedy upsetting popular favourite Gout Gout at the line of the 200m Peter Norman Classic in which the 17-year-old Gout recorded the fastest 100m time ever in Australia for a teenager, while Law fell back one place, settling to take a spot on the podium at the Maurie Plant meet.
"Who would not want to have the fastest man in Australia over like the 100 and 200m right now, like Lachie, to train with?" Law said.
Terrell Thorne ran a personal best in the 400m final in Perth to earn a silver medal amid a brilliant performance.
Thorne, still only 18, qualified second in his semi-final heat with a 46.53 but sliced nearly a second off that mark in his next race to finish in a time of 45.54.
The Murri man is not new to cutting times, having set a new Australian under-18 record in the 400m just four months earlier that had stood for 36 years.
Anika Gosling, one of Australia's promising field athletes, put in a solid weekend in both the discus and shot put.
The Wadjuk Noongar woman threw a high 50.03 metres in the last of six discus attempts, falling 1.3 metres short of taking home a bronze medal in the final.
Gosling's last throw in the shot put final was also her best, the 13.56 metres ensuring the 24-year-old claimed seventh overall.
Thewbelle Philp sensationally clocked the fastest time in the under-20 100m heats.
The Minjungbal woman ran a 11.51, but it still was not as fast as the 17-year-old's 11.38 during the recent Australian All Schools Championships earlier this year.
But the fastest qualifier pulled up injured and sensationally was unable to get into the blocks to start the final.
Telaya Blacksmith snared gold in both the para under-20 200m final in a time of 26.18 and in the para senior 400m final in 1:00.62.
The Warlpiri woman qualified first in her para senior 100m heat in 12.55 but finished fourth in the final.
She also leapt 5.20 metres into fifth spot of the para senior long jump final, in which every competitor recorded a personal best.
