He takes his hat off to Sally Pearson's gutsy return to international competition.
And Australian head athletics coach Craig Hilliard believes Pearson made the right call trimming her race schedule short, saying the reigning Olympic champion knows what needs to be done if she's to defend her London 100m hurdles gold medal in Rio.
Pearson has returned to her Gold Coast training base a week early after deciding to skip Thursday's Diamond League meet in Stockholm, where she was due to line up against top American Kendra Harrison.
After a year on the sidelines with wrist and achilles injuries, the 29-year-old threw herself back into competition last month and delivered three disappointing results.
A 13.25-second run in Birmingham's Diamond League event was followed by an improved 12.92sec in a small Paris meet, before she ran 13.14sec to come last in last week's Oslo Diamond League.
Pearson and her coach Ashley Mahoney decided to withdraw from Stockholm in favour of extra uninterrupted training before she re-joins the European circuit later next month.
"I think it's the right decision," Hilliard told AAP.
"She'd obviously want to be further advanced - by her own standards she'd say that.
"But (the races) showed her a number of things she needs to work on, particularly at the back end part of her race, that she and her coach have identified.
"She's in a happy space and she now knows what needs to be done - that's the most important thing."
Hilliard said the mere fact Pearson was back racing marked a massive emotional and physical step forward for an athlete, who only dragged the hurdles back out two months ago.
"And hats off to her," he said.
"For someone who's been out of the sport for over 12 months at the highest level, to come back and throw herself straight into a Diamond League takes a fair bit of guts.
"But it's something she had to do and she didn't want to run away from that."
Pearson will have a battle on her hands to defend her London crown, with Harrison the current favourite among the pacesetting Americans.
However, the Beijing 2008 silver medallist has pointed out she's already proven she can overcome adversity, having shaken off hamstring injuries in both 2013 and 2014 to win silver at the Moscow world championships and gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
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