Warrnambool athlete Grace Kelly sets sights on 2024 World Junior Championships

Warrnambool teenage sprinter Grace Kelly had hoped to push for the national team and make her Commonwealth Games debut in her home state.

As a regional Victorian, the Emmanuel College student said she would have loved to have flown the flag for her community and represent Australia.

"It was disappointing to hear, those were the games I was personally aiming to go to," she told The Standard. "It's definitely disappointing for the athletes, especially regional athletes because we don't get as many opportunities and to have such an event in our own backyard, it would have been amazing."

Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday announced the 2026 games would not go ahead due to the cost of hosting the 12-day event more than doubling to near $7 billion.

Major regional Victorian cities Ballarat, Geelong, Shepparton and Gippsland were to host events with Melbourne the venue for the opening ceremony.

Despite uncertainty surrounding whether another state would put its hand up to host the games, Kelly remains positive.

"Hopefully wherever they're going to be I can still push hard and make them, it would have been special to have a home games (in Victoria) but that's still my aim to be in the Commonwealth Games," she said.

"It's still a major goal of mine."

Kelly said her focus was now turning to qualifying for the 2024 world junior championships in Peru.

She added a change in coaches to Ballarat-based Gerrard Keating - a former Commonwealth Games sprinter - was paying dividends so far.

"Changing coaches is a really exciting new journey for me I think and it's a step up I'm excited to take," she said.

"I think that can help me get closer to those goals I'm reaching towards and it's just about getting stuck into pre-season and trying hard. Hopefully I can do well and qualify for the world juniors next year.

"I go up to Ballarat once a week and he comes down here sometimes once a week so it's been great so far. In pre-season it's just about working on little things like one percenters at this time and working with Gerrard to see what I can be better at."

As for the long-term, the star sprinter said aside from reaching the 2026 Commonwealth Games in 2026, she wanted to represent her country at every opportunity.

"I've always got long-term goals, I always want to represent Australia whether that's Commonwealth Games, or in the Olympics in a relay team or just as an individual," she said.

"That's my goal and I'll work hard towards achieving that."

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