Australian head coach Craig Hilliard has praised decathlete Cedric Dubler's "sensational" Olympic-qualifying performance, and predicted the youngster still has big improvements ahead.
Dubler became Australian athletics' first Rio bolter on Friday night, pushing through cramps and stomach issues to put down a huge personal best of 8114 points - enough to squeeze past the required standard of 8100 points.
It means the 21-year-old Queenslander is poised to become the first male decathlete to represent Australia at an Olympics since Scott Ferrier contested Sydney 2000.
Hilliard said he wasn't surprised, given Dubler's talent, but was openly impressed considering the difficulty of the cut-off.
"It's one of the hardest marks on the IAAF standard," he said.
"It used to sit on around about 8000, and early days it was under 8000, so for him to come out and do this is a sensational performance.
"Especially given his age and youth and the injuries he's had to deal with over the last couple of years.
"He's had a late start this year - it hasn't been all smooth sailing for him."
Dubler was sidelined for all of last season with a back injury, and, prior to claiming silver in the 2014 world juniors, was disrupted by a hamstring complaint.
Hilliard said Dubler, who's been coached by Brisbane-based Eric Brown for the last six years, had always been adamant he was capable of qualifying.
"Now it gives him a really good platform to springboard his next four to six years, because he's still maturing physically," Hilliard said.
"And if you look through his events, his shot put was 11.93m - he needs to get that up around 14m."
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