Elijah Wilson was told his hopes of competing at nationals had all but disappeared the moment a piece of his femur broke off and consigned him to a surgeon's table.
The athletics prospect was in a knee brace and on crutches for six weeks. When he took the brace off, he had to spend another month on crutches before he could even walk again.
With two months left on the calendar until Australian athletics' national championships were due to roll around, the Canberra prospect was racing the clock.
"I was pretty much told that the looks of even competing at nationals were very little," Wilson said, "let alone throwing it at quite a high level and even winning like I did."
Wait. Wilson - who came to coach Rowan Vergano as a high jumper - just won two national titles in discus and shot put, and booked a ticket to the world under 20s championships in the process? Just months after surgery?
In an athletics world infatuated with sprint sensations like Gout Gout and Eddie Nketia, the Canberran who has shattered his own record to run the fastest all conditions 100m sprint Australia has ever seen, Wilson is another star on the rise.
Wilson has won three national shot put titles, and his best throw exceeded the qualifying mark for the under 20 world championships - but he threw that before the qualifying period had opened.
So he heads to the University of Oregon in the United States as a discus thrower after clearing the qualifying mark at nationals, which was "a big accomplishment from where I came from, knowing that I might not have even competed at nationals this year."
"I think my body's starting to develop into more of a discus thrower rather than a shot put thrower. I enjoy discus a bit more. It flies further, you know," Wilson said.
"Shot put, you put all the effort out and it goes only 19, 18 metres. Discus you put it all out and then it flies about 60 metres, so it's a bit more rewarding."
A ticket to worlds means finding a way to raise funds to get there, which is why Wilson has turned to the Australian Sports Foundation with a campaign to "help get Elijah to worlds", which begin on August 5.
The campaign, which has raised more than $3000, is designed to ease the financial burden on Wilson's parents and assist with flights, accommodation, team costs, training, and competition preparation.
"We're getting close, it's coming quicker than you'd expect. I think, right now, I'm actually in the best shape of my life," Wilson said.
"I think all I need to do is focus on myself and not worry about the other competition because I know my capabilities can definitely set me in that top five category, but we've got to take small steps at a time."
As for the places he could go along the way?
"I'd like to make some Commonwealth Games teams, some World Athletics teams, and the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, that's probably up the top there right now for me," Wilson said.
"That's my big main goal. I'll be about 25 years old when that comes around, so starting to look into the peak age of my career. Hopefully I'm just going to keep at it and if things fall into place, that should be definitely achievable.
"I would like to make like a worlds team prior to that. But the Olympics, that's obviously the big one for everyone, right? That'd be pretty awesome to represent at the Olympics here."
