Canberra's Lauren Boden believes her heavy training schedule gives her the edge over Jana Pittman as the two go head-to-head for a start at the London Olympic Games.
Pittman, soundly beaten by Boden in a 300m flat event in Brisbane last week, announced she would not be hurdling for a few months as she attempts to improve her speed without going over the hurdles.
But the Canberran has different plans. Hurdling is firmly on Boden's schedule with races planned for Newcastle, Hobart, Perth and Sydney before the Olympic selection trials in Melbourne on March2-3.
''It's pretty much a race a week at the moment and I will get into shape pretty quickly I think,'' she said.
Boden has altered her preparations this season but, unlike Pittman, she is already confident that she has done the leg work and has enough flat speed to succeed.
''The hurdles has always been the main priority for this season,'' she said. ''Matt [Beckenham, her coach] and I have probably just taken a slightly different approach and worked a lot on my flat speed, which has always been a little bit of a weakness of mine.''
The results are already starting to show with her time of 56.62sec in her return to hurdles racing in Canberra two weeks ago faster than previous season openers.
''It is the fastest season-opening run that I've had, quite significantly faster, so I'm showing good early signs of good form.''
Although Boden hasn't placed too much weight on the win over Pittman labelling it a ''training run'', it is another sign of early-season form.
''It is always good to see how your flat speed is going ... it was a good early indicator that the season has started off to a good start,'' the 23-year-old said.
In their only race last season, in Perth, Pittman got the better of Boden. ''I made a bit of a stride pattern error and was a little bit disappointed with the outcome of the race because it was there for the winning,'' Boden said.
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