The hype and excitement of making her Olympic Games debut were not enough to wake Alethea Sedgman as the teenage shooter almost slept through her event.
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Sedgman didn't hear her 5am alarm on the first day of competition in London which threw her preparation for the 10m air rifle event into disarray.
But after waking up just 10 minutes before the bus departed, the 18-year-old missed a spot in the gold-medal final by 10 points at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Sedgman didn't go to the opening ceremony on Friday, but she stayed up to watch the Australian team march.
She set her alarm and hit the snooze button for ''five more minutes'' when she fell back asleep. The next thing she remembers is roommate Lauryn Mark waking her up an hour and 10 minutes later.
The room allocation for the Australian shooting team was one of the most controversial points leading into the Games with husband and wife Russell and Lauryn Mark being forced to sleep in separate rooms.
But Sedgman was relieved their wish wasn't granted as Lauryn saved her from an embarrassing late arrival to the first event of the Games.
''Lauryn woke me up at 6.15am and the bus was leaving at 6.25am and she just yelled, 'Alethea, you have to get up!','' Sedgman said.
''I just went run, run, run ... I slept straight through my alarm. I've never done that before, I'm an idiot. I wanted to shoot a PB and I didn't, but I'm pretty satisfied. I could have let the nerves get to me but I didn't.''
Australia's two competitors — Sedgman and Robyn van Nus — both missed the eight-competitor final.
It was Sedgman's only event of her first Olympics after she burst on to the international stage as a 16-year-old when she won gold at the Commonwealth Games two years ago.
