TEEN Tumblong walker Casey Smith says a heart issue which briefly sidelined her from racing a couple of years ago has made her more determined to succeed after returning from competing in Canada with two gold medals.
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After receiving an invite to compete from Sports Travel Australia, the 15-year-old The Riverina Anglican College student took out 1.5km events at Okanagan and the British Columbia championships at Kamloops, both near Vancouver.
She clocked a personal best time of eight minutes, 13 seconds at British Columbia, shaving 13 seconds off her previous benchmark when she came sixth at this year's state titles.
"I do up to 3km and aiming to go up to 5km maybe this year," she said.
"The experience of competing in another country and the atmosphere of being in a team (was great)."
A couple of years ago a health issue which causes low blood pressure and fluid around the heart prevented Smith from taking part in the little athletics state championships.
She is now on top of the issue and has her sights set on attempting to make the Commonwealth Games or Olympics.
"A couple of years ago I was really sick and couldn't do states, I missed out by a hundredth of a second," she said.
"I had low blood pressure and problems with my heart, a bug attacked my heart and put fluid around it.
"I couldn't train or compete for two months but I'm OK to go now, if I do feel dizzy or get low blood pressure I have to take it easy."
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