Public health 'bigger than sport' to Olympic hopeful Paige Campbell

The rising athletics and running star had set that lofty goal late last year, after representing Australia in Qatar at the 2019 World Athletics Championships.

But now, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, rather than competing overseas or training with her team in Canberra, Campbell is self-isolating on her family's property in Warren.

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"Initially, I was pretty devastated because that was the big goal; you go to sleep every night thinking about the Olympics and now it's a long, long way again," Campbell said.

"But you have to remember it's so much bigger than just sport, when you think about that, it gets a lot easier to cope with."

Without the trappings of the gym in Canberra, Campbell is having to take things back to basics, training in seclusion and safety.

"I've settled back into a rhythm and shifted the goalposts a bit, on the farm here in Warren, social isolation isn't really an issue, I'm running on my own and running a lot of miles," Campbell said.

"I'm doing a lot of the base work just at the threshold level rather than pushing it to that top, top speed in order to stay in shape and stay focused."

Although Campbell's maintaining contact with her coaches in Canberra over the phone, she admits it's tougher to train as hard without the backing of a team alongside her.

"It makes the motivation harder, even though you're not actually a team in this sport, you kind of are in terms of training, there's always that banter and everyone lifting each other up," Campbell said.

"But at the end of the day, you just have to be thinking about that bigger goal."

While Campbell's glad that runners like her are still able to train, there are other challenges looming that could make a run at the Olympics harder to achieve.

"This year, I suspended my university studies and hadn't been working because I was trying to give my training everything, now, it's tough, it's hard to really financially afford to put that much effort into it again," Campbell said.

But she remains committed to trying for Olympic selection for 2021.

"Ever since I was young it was the dream, that fire still burns for sure, it's something I definitely want to do."