Torrie Lewis out to follow in footsteps of giants as World Athletics Championships bid begins

Torrie Lewis is ready to make her mark on the world stage.

After reaching the semi-finals of the 200m at the Paris Olympics last year and then following it up with a silver medal at the World Athletics Under 20 Championships in Lima, she feels ready to lift her performances.

Leading into the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, and still only 20 years old, the sprinter has raised her expectations and wants to become one of the elites of her sport.

"I feel like I have the experience," she said.

The first step for the Queenslander is the heats of the 100m on the first day of the championships on Saturday, followed by the 200m later in the week and then hopefully the 4x100m relay final on the event's final day.

"I want to make semifinals at least, and you know, be in contention for a final," Lewis said.

"I know if I PB in the 100m and also the 200m, then I'll be in that position."

A personal best in the 100m would mean breaking her own Australian record of 10.10 seconds, which she set in Canberra in January last year.

"That's definitely the plan, and yeah, the progression … I can see it going high," Lewis said.

Lewis is on the same upward trajectory as so many young Australian athletes now making waves on the world stage.

The one causing most headlines is the precociously talented 17-year-old Gout Gout, who will run in the 200m at Tokyo and who draws headlines and attracts hordes of adoring fans wherever he goes.

But Lewis said none of that adulation had gone to Gout's head.

"I think everyone just genuinely is happy for him and like I've met him a couple of times and he's not cocky about it, like he's not rude about it thinking he's better than anyone," Lewis said.

"So yeah, I think that just makes people even more happy for him."

Which is not to say she would not mind attracting headlines of her own as another star young sprinter on the rise.

"I guess I just look at sort of the Australian heroes like Cathy Freeman and Sally Pearson, and how much people look up to them and just, you know, think they're amazing," Lewis said.

"And I also want to be one of the best like them.

"You know, having a home Olympics in Brisbane [2032] I think is the perfect opportunity.

"If I can hopefully be at that level, I'm making the final and in contention for a medal.

"Like, I want to be a name that the whole world is saying: 'Yes, she's gonna get a medal.'"

Lewis's year started brilliantly when she ran a personal best for the 200m at an indoor meet in France in February.

She followed that up with a win in the 100m at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth in April.

But soon after, disaster struck when she injured her Achilles tendon "really badly" and thought for a moment she had derailed her season.

"I probably couldn't do anything for a bit over a month," she said.

But three weeks after she resumed running, she was back competing.

"That's why I have a couple of slow times on my record this year, which is annoying, but I think it was the best option to compete and get my fitness back through competing," she said.

"I competed a lot and got my fitness back through that and I put some good times down again, and in myself I feel as fit as I did at the start of the year."

The rehab work paid off when she ran an 11.16-second 100m in Slovakia last month, but she feels she has far more to give.

"I think I definitely have a lot of potential to go sub 11 for sure," she said.

Lewis is currently ranked 19th in the world for the 200m and 35th for the 100m as she ebbs and flows between which distance is her favourite.

"Usually, I would say the 200m but my 100m this year are feeling pretty confident and maybe with the missed training, my 200m haven't been as good as what I expected them to be," Lewis said.

"The majority of the training I've done this year has been geared towards the 100m, so that's probably why I'm also feeling more comfortable in my 100m this year."

When she runs on Saturday, Lewis will take comfort from her experiences in Paris and Lima and the mindset she learnt from competing in the two events, which she said were completely different.

"The Olympics was just so much hype around it and, like, so many emotions in that. My mum came all the way to Paris and you know, it was so big," she said.

"Then going to juniors [U20 world championships] after that, it just felt so chill.

"I honestly wasn't even nervous for juniors, because I had just done the Olympics and even though I probably should have been more nervous because I was in contention for a medal.

"I was just, like, this is fun."

She said she wanted to harness the "chill energy" of Lima rather than the nervous energy of Paris when she runs in Tokyo.

"I don't want to all of a sudden switch up and become crazy nervous — that's when you don't compete as good as you train, so I want to just stay chill and stay relaxed," she said.

Which will help her run fast.

"You run your fastest when you're relaxed and you know, no stress or tension in the shoulder, so that's what you want to feel — just the flow of the race," she said.

She is also confident that the Australian team in the 4x100m relay has a great chance of making the finals in Tokyo with Lewis competing alongside the likes of Bree Masters, Leah O'Brien, Ella Connolly and Kristie Edwards.

"I think the girls this year, not only are we as close as a team as we've been this past years, but I think the fastest we've been as well," she said.

"Australia this year has put a lot of focus into the relays, and I think that's paying off — we have five relay teams qualified for Tokyo, which is really impressive."

The daughter of a Scottish mother and a Jamaican and Indian father epitomises the new multi-national generation of Australian athletes.

Fortunately for Australian Athletics, Lewis did not pick up one of the many other sports that would have fallen over themselves to get an athlete of her calibre.

"Yeah, well, I have speed, but I didn't have any hand-eye coordination," she said.

"So, I played a little bit of netball in school, but I'm not a footy person. Like, I can't catch a ball, I can't kick a ball.

"But I think the fact that I had my speed, I knew if I wanted to do sport, speed was the only thing I could use, and, yeah, I was just always good at tracks, so I always just did it."

Football and netball's loss was athletics' gain.

Now, on the cusp of the world championships, Torrie Lewis is aiming for the top.

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