SOPHIE Papps is racing without a care in the world - and the Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow ace believes her happy-go-lucky attitude can be the secret weapon as she eyes global glory later this summer.
A vintage display, as a guest runner, at the British Universities Championships at the Olympic Stadium earlier this month saw Papps duck under both the 100 and 200 metre (m) qualifying times for July's World Junior Championships.
As a result Papps can fine tune her technique rather than be a slave to the stopwatch between now and the Aviva England Under-20 Championships - which double up as the world trials - on June 16-17 in Bedford.
That tinkering got going at the Loughborough International over the weekend where the 17-year-old competed in the 100 and 200m - again clocking the World Junior qualification standard over the longer distance with 23.84 seconds (secs).
And having claimed European Youth Olympic Festival and Commonwealth Youth Games 100m gold last year, Papps is daring to dream of another summer to remember after her rapid start to 2012.
"I felt that I ran all right at Loughborough and in general I'm feeling really good because I'm really happy with the way the season has started," said Papps.
"We are midway through now looking at the World Juniors and the timetable between now and then, and it's going well so I'm really pleased and really excited about the next few months.
"I've done the qualifying standards for both the 100m and the 200m, so I'm really happy that I've got it out of the way and I can concentrate on performing rather than worrying about the times.
"Now I need to go and finish in the top two at the trials.
"But now I've got the times out of the way I'm really happy I don't have to worry about it. Things like Loughborough were just about getting as much race practice as possible because at the moment racing is a really important part of my training programme." And such has been the consistency of her early-season displays Papps believes just remaining consistent - not scaling new heights - could be enough to deliver more medals in Spain.
"Because the 100 and 200m are quite an intense race it's obviously important to get in as many races as I can," she added. "But in general it's exciting to have run the times I have because if I can run these times at this stage in my outdoor season then hopefully I can mimic something like that later on.
"The way I have run earlier in the season gives me confidence for the World Juniors and running at a lot of senior events indoors also helped a lot.
"Running well now and going to every race knowing I can run fast is exciting." Brought to you by SPAR, Official Sponsors of UK Athletics. For more information visit www.spar.co.uk ** See Friday's Observer for an London 2012 Olympic Games countdown special ** ** Follow the Observer on Twitter @Observer_sports **
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here