Newcastle's Jemma Pollard will switch focus to cementing her 400m spot in the national team for the world junior titles after finishing third in the Stawell Gift (120m) women's final.
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The 18-year-old, racing off a handicap of 8.75m, dominated her semi-final on Monday before the decider was delayed two and a half hours because of storms and a water-logged track.
Favourite Chloe Mannix-Power, off 4.25m, took out the final in 13.4171 seconds from Chloe Kinnersly (9.75m), who ran 13.5265, just ahead of Pollard (13.544).
"It was a fantastic run in some crazy conditions," Pollard's coach Tim Eschebach said. "Chloe was always the favourite and the one to beat, but it was a great run from Jemma and she will be looking forward to nationals in a couple of weeks."
Jack Lacey won the men's final in a photo-finish.
Pollard's training partner, Grace Hewitt, finished strongly for second in her semi-final.
"She had one of the fast girls in her semi and Grace laid down a great run, one of the best runs she's ever done," Eschebach said.
"It just wasn't enough against some of the handicaps."
Pollard had recently run with the Australian women's 4x400m relay team in Brisbane to clock a world relay qualifier.
"I tell a lot of my athletes about Stawell, the time to run well there is when you've got a good handicap and you're running fast," Eschebach said.
"She had to run down the track this year and ideally I would have saved it until next year because she's got such a busy schedule, but it was good anyway."
Pollard, who has the fastest 400m time in the Australian junior ranks, will guarantee her spot at August's world under-20 titles in Lima, Peru, with victory at nationals in Adelaide.
She pocketed $3000 for the third placing on Monday. The winner received $40,000.
AAP reports: Olympic finalist Peter Bol has finished a soggy second in the 1000m invitational handicap race as a severe thunderstorm played havoc with the program on finals day at the Stawell Gift carnival.
Minutes after Stawell Gift favourite Endale Mekonnen clocked the fastest semi-final time of 12.23 seconds in the feature 120m event on Monday, heavy rain started falling at Central Park.
Organisers chose to push ahead with the 1000m invitational handicap, with Bol charging home from the scratch mark to finish a close second behind Riley Bryce.
"Crazy weather but what a great event," said Bol, who was fourth in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics.
"I haven't raced in rain like that since I was a kid.
"Congrats to Riley. I just left a little too much to do off the last bend.
"I felt I had a chance to catch him, but he was just a bit strong."
