Former Queanbeyan Whites junior Lewis Holland has overcome a hamstring injury in the nick of time to ensure he'll be a part of Australia's quest for rugby sevens gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
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The 28-year-old wasn't named in the initial 12-man Australian squad after tweaking his hamstring at last month's Oceania Sevens Championship in Townsville, but passed his final fitness test on Tuesday to book his spot as 13th man.
He'll benefit from the International Olympic Committee's amended athlete replacement rules, which now allow competitors who would have toured purely as injury replacements to be a full member of the overall squad.
"The IOC changed the ruling so you can basically have 13 players now, and from that 13 you can choose 12 for each game," Holland said.
"The conversations we had were if I could get back I'd be able to put my hand up for that position. I've done a fair few hammies in my time - I had a lot of confidence I'd be able to do it within the tight timeframe.
"I had to get back within two weeks, usually it's a three to four week transition so basically everything was just sped up. I ran every second day, I had to get speed markers, fitness markers and kilometre markers.
"It's just basically reconditioning yourself and the muscle and getting it back to where it needs to get back to. It felt pretty good throughout the two weeks considering how hard we've pushed it."
Holland and his Australian sevens teammates are in Sydney, training amid the city's hard lockdown, while undergoing routine Covid tests as part of the strict regime protecting the health of Tokyo bound athletes.
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They depart for Japan on Monday, and will spend less time in the country than their enforced two-week quarantine when they return to Australia at the end of July.
"It's different, but the world's a different place, our preparation before Rio [2016 Olympics], we were over in Rio for two weeks before we went into the village, we had a training camp, got to acclimatise," Holland said.
"This one we were in Cairns trying to get the heat exposure, then we had to come back to Sydney, now we're stuck in the cold. They're all obstacles we've had to face but we're not complaining. We've just got to make sure that we control what we can control here and prepare the best that we can.
"It's been raining in Tokyo so who knows what weather you'll get over there. It'll be humid, we're down here training with a wet ball, you've just got to take whatever environment you have."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
