Nina Kennedy was a pole vaulter - but only just - when big-time athletics last came to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.
She remembers watching on TV as a starry-eyed 11-year-old when Steve Hooker won gold in spectacular fashion.
Then came the thrill of training alongside Hooker in Perth, learning from the best under the watchful eye of master coach Alex Parnov.
Hooker has been retired for more than a year now and will in all likelihood be glued to his television when the 18-year-old Kennedy makes her major championships debut at the world titles in Monday as the youngest member of the 45-strong Australian team.
Kennedy effectively booked her spot on the squad back in February when she cleared a then-junior world record height of 4.59m in Perth.
That effort moved her to fourth on the national alltime list in an event where Australia has produced a raft of world-class performers.
She was unable to replicate that height during a recent seven-week stint in Europe, but still learnt plenty from spending so long away from the comforts of home.
"I have goals here but my main focus is to have fun and enjoy the whole experience and soak everything up because I know in the years to come that is when I will look back on this and draw on it," said Kennedy, who will be the youngest pole vaulter in the women's field in Beijing.
"I guess there has been a little bit more media attention and pressure on myself and from the public, but I have to keep reminding myself I am just 18 and there is pressure there but I have a whole career to succeed."
At the other end of her career is 31-year-old national record holder Alana Boyd, a veteran of two Olympics who has declared that this will be her last world championships campaign.
Boyd is a two-time Commonwealth pole vault gold medallist whose aim in Beijing is to crack the top eight at a global championships for the first time.
She will also be keeping a watchful eye on her former training partner Kennedy.
"She is 18 and I feel so old against her, but it is really good that she has come from world youth and world juniors and now made her first senior team and it is so exciting for her," said Boyd.
"It's good there is another Aussie out there.
"The crowd is going to be big and the competition is going to be fierce.
"My advice would be in any event you can say `enjoy the competition' but particularly with pole vault it is actually a fun event, when you can get it right that feeling of soaring over the bar is pretty cool."
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