Canberra sprinter Melissa Breen's Commonwealth Games hopes hinge on the faith of Australian selectors but coach Matt Beckenham is confident she will be on the Gold Coast in April.
Breen won her 100 metre heat at the Australian athletics championships in 11.86 seconds on Thursday night but opted not to compete in the semi-finals or the final on Friday.
The two-time Olympian has been hampered by sciatic nerve problems for the past three weeks which have restricted her to a handful of training sessions as the Commonwealth Games draw near.
Breen has erred on the side of caution for most of the year, with her latest withdrawal following that at the ACT championships in January.
Beckenham hopes 4×100 metre relay team hopeful Breen is given the nod with a discretionary selection, insisting there is method behind the madness of pulling out of semi-finals.
Beckenham says selectors have "a tough gig" given they have limited spots to work with but he is feeling "pretty confident" Breen will be selected in the relay team.
The 27-year-old would join the likes of Sally Pearson and Riley Day in the relay squad, which Beckenham believes would make for "a pretty strong team".
"That's what we're focused on," Beckenham said.
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"I would be hopeful that they would also use their discretion to take her in the 100m, because she's not going to be taking up another spot, being already picked in the relay. That's the method behind our madness.
"She got through the heat okay so it was just in our best interests to not risk running again at these championships."
Athletics Australia selectors will pick a team of 111 athletes for the Commonwealth Games – featuring 88 able-bodied and 23 para-athletes – and Breen could be given extra time to prove her fitness.
Breen says racing at nationals seemed "impossible" given where she was four weeks ago, and now Beckenham will sit down with doctors and map out a plan ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
"It was a pretty good achievement based on where she was three weeks ago in terms of she couldn't really run down a track at all without feeling pain and not really knowing exactly what the diagnosis was," Beckenham said.
"It's been a matter of trial and error in trying to get to a start line, which is what she did. I'm glad that she was able to do that.
"We've got now six or seven weeks instead if being a very forced and rush two week [period] in trying to get her to the start line.
"We can now be a little bit more deliberate in our approach and put in place a plan that can be focused on seven weeks rather than two week. I'm optimistic that we can have her running much faster by April."
Meanwhile, fellow Canberra star Lauren Wells has a massive 24 hours ahead as she prepares to launch a raid on an 11th 400m hurdles title and an open long jump triumph.
Wells is the favourite to claim an unprecedented 11th Australian 400m hurdles championship on Sunday, and she will back up in the open long jump final 80 minutes later.
While Wells advanced to another 400m hurdles final, Beckenham lauded ACT junior Annamaria Leszczynska as she ran "a massive" personal best in her semi-final to qualify for the world junior championships.
Emerging star Andrea Thompson finished fifth in the open heptathlon with ACT teammate Sophie Stanwell finishing sixth.
Cameron Crombie finished well clear of the field to finish first in the men's shot put ambulant event, throwing 15.77m – over two metres clear of fellow ACT representative Jayden Sawyer [13.28m].
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