Addison Covill has a quiet determination about her.
The 14-year-old sprinter and long jumper is less than three weeks away from the biggest moment of her fledgling athletic career to date: the Australian All Schools Championships.
This year the competition is being held at the WA Athletics Stadium in Perth, more than 3,500kms from Addison’s home in the Northern Territory town of Katherine.
And with less than three weeks to go until the championship, Addison plans to spend five nights a week training.
It’s a typically hot and humid November night at Katherine Oval, Addison’s home track.
Here, there aren’t any clear lines marked out for the 100m she sprints, the surface isn’t flat and she shares the grass field with the town’s rugby league team.
It’s a far cry from the synthetic track Addison will be running on in Perth next month.
“It’s a bit hard sometimes, but I’m used to it now,” Addison said.
While Addison has no sway over the condition of her hometown track, her technique at the starting block is under her control.
Strong starts are crucial in the 100-metre sprint.
“I always get a bit scared before the gun goes off to go,” she said.
“But once I start running it all goes away.”
Lack of resources outside urban centres a setback
Addison dreams of running at the Olympics and she’s not the only Katherine local with big ambitions.
Chantelle Parker works with promising youngsters across the Big Rivers region.
She said the lack of adequate resources can have a detrimental impact on young athletes.
“They can’t achieve their goals,” Ms Parker said.
There’s only one synthetic track in the Northern Territory, 300kms north in Darwin.
Ms Parker said this often left aspiring athletes with the choice between leaving town to chase their dreams or giving up.
“They’re restricted here and this is where it stops, because they can’t continue to strive to grow,” she said.
Past Olympians walked the same road
Nova Peris ran barefoot when she sprinted into the Northern Territory record book.
“I’m told three of those records still exists today,” Peris said.
Peris represented Australia in two Olympic Games, four World Championships and a Commonwealth Games, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.
Peris said athletes from around regional Australia all faced the same dilemma.
She herself made the move from her hometown of Darwin to Perth to chase her ambitions.
“I could only do so much in the NT and for me to represent Australia, chase that dream, I had to go,” Peris said.
“To be the one per cent in anything is hard, it’s the ultimate sacrifice.”
Young athlete facing the same choice
After an evening practising sprinting, Addison finishes with her secondary event: long jump.
Much like the grass track, the sand pit has seen better days, and is partially covered in overgrown grass.
On the sidelines, Addison’s mum, dad and her younger sister and brother are all watching on, cheering for her.
On her final jump, Addison posts a personal best.
The Australian All Schools Championships may have some bearing on Addison’s future.
Her mum Amanda Macpherson said what happened in Perth could lead the family to a crossroad.
“Moving on to somewhere that can support [Addison] or with coaching and more resources,” Ms Macpherson said.
The entire family is driving to watch her next month, but whether they’d all move with her if an opportunity arose is still up in the air.
“We have spoken about it as a family or maybe individually for her if she does get accepted into a program.”
For Addison, any decision would come with a cost: leaving the town she calls home.
“All my friends are here, school’s here. I don’t really want to leave it behind,” she said.
It’s the same decision Nova Peris faced.
“Irrespective of the postcode that I grew up in, I still dreamt big as a kid,” Peris said.
“And I got to live out my two dreams of going to the Olympics in two different sports.”