TORRIE Lewis hopes there's "many more teams to come", but for now the 18-year-old World Championships debutante is living out her athletics dream.
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Lewis, a former Newcastle schoolgirl and Macquarie Hunter Athletics Club alumni, will represent Australia for the first time when contesting the women's 100 metres and relay in Budapest from this weekend.
She admits missing last year's global under-20 meet through a hamstring injury only fuelled the fire for 2023 - setting up a national sprint double in Brisbane in April, experience racing overseas and ultimately selection to don the green and gold uniform.
![Australian sprint champion Torrie Lewis will make her World Championships debut in Budapest this weekend. Picture by Simon Sturzaker Australian sprint champion Torrie Lewis will make her World Championships debut in Budapest this weekend. Picture by Simon Sturzaker](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/gNecaFSpqFSLkittedmeiY/f72afdd0-a9df-429c-a02f-c186f81efe37.JPG/r0_358_3500_2334_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I was able to turn the disappointment from not being able to compete in Columbia for the under-20 championships last year into work and motivation for this year," Lewis told the Newcastle Herald.
"If you had told me, even at the beginning of this year, that I would achieve a double gold at open nationals and be selected on the Australian team for World Championships, I definitely would have said 'you're dreaming'."
Lewis, who grew up at Gateshead but is now based in Brisbane, finds herself alongside sprinting royalty at the World Championships with the likes of Shericka Jackson, Marie-Josee Ta Lou, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sha'Carri Richardson and Dina Asher-Smith also in the field.
It's a long-awaited challenge for the former St Paul's student, who made the switch to little athletics from gymnastics in 2016.
![Torrie Lewis at Glendale in 2017. Picture by Josh Callinan Torrie Lewis at Glendale in 2017. Picture by Josh Callinan](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/gNecaFSpqFSLkittedmeiY/0c6347de-cbab-4d12-8227-ad63ffe64d3e.jpg/r0_0_3888_2195_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"At the time I was in Mac Hunter, I probably imagined myself wearing the green and gold for gymnastics instead of athletics," Lewis said.
"But I remember always talking to the other girls in my age group about what it would be like going to the Olympics and racing the best of the best."
Lewis posted personal-best times across two distances this season, 11.23 seconds in Sydney in March (100m) and 23.02s in Brisbane in April (200m).
Recently racing across Europe and withdrawing from the 200m for Budapest, the teenager reveals her aim is to "make the semi-final for my 100m and make the final for the relay".
Heats with fellow Aussie sprinter Bree Masters are scheduled for Sunday (8:10pm, AEST) while semis (4:35am) and finals (5:50am) follow on Tuesday.
The women's 4x100m relay takes place next weekend with Lewis and Masters teaming up with Ella Connolly, Celeste Mucci, Kristie Edwards and Ebony Lane.
Lewis is the youngest member of Australia's 66-athlete squad.
"This is my first Australian team that I've actually got to compete in the green and gold internationally, so I'm really excited to be finally able to wear it," she said.
"It's an honour to make my first team at 18 and hopefully that just means many more teams to come."
Lewis, despite being away but like millions of others around Australia during the last month, has kept track of the Matildas run at the women's soccer World Cup back home.
"At the staging camp in France they've put the games up on the big television in one of the meeting rooms and we've been able to watch them as a group, which was super fun," she said.
Merewether's Rose Davies, who has represented Australia at the Olympics (2021), Commonwealth Games and World Championships (2022), will run the women's 5000m at Hungary's National Athletics Centre on Wednesday (7:10pm, AEST).
Competition gets underway on Saturday and wraps up August 27.
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