The Australian javelin thrower who juggles a professional athletics career with Doctor of Medicine studies, Mackenzie Little, left it to her final exam of the women's final at Budapest's world championships to set herself up for a bronze medal.
Little was placed fifth as she wound up for her last throw of the women's javelin final on Saturday morning (AEST), but the 26-year-old from Sydney hurled a 63.38-metre bomb to rocket into the silver-medal position.
She then ultimately clinched bronze, dropping to third as Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi went from fourth place to taking out gold with her last throw of the decider.
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"I'm meant to be flying home tomorrow morning (Sunday morning) and I'm meant to be at the hospital (Royal North Shore) on Monday morning, but I hear there is a medal ceremony so we're going to talk about that later," said an elated Little.
"I would say that rounds two, three, four and five felt so close, but I felt like something was missing, but I kept going back to (coach) Angus (McEntyre) on the fence and saying I needed to get this and this right. If I'm honest, it didn't come together on the sixth, but I've got more and I'm so excited to show you I have more at the Diamond League final (September 15-16, Eugene), but this is absolutely a dream and the highlight of my career."
Kitaguchi hauled in gold with a throw of 66.73 metres, relegating Colombia's Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado (65.47 metres) to silver.
Securing bronze represented a breakthrough for Little, who finished eighth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and fifth at last year's world championships in Eugene.
Snaring bronze was a sweet reward for the incredible juggling act that is her life. When she flew out of Sydney this month, she headed to Europe for the fourth time in only nine weeks because her final-year medicine studies make it impossible for her to be based in Europe.
"This whole season I've gotten better and better and I've learnt to travel well and compete and nail those technical things and I feel like I've jumped up to a higher echelon of throwers, confident in global finals, so it's exciting to be there and have expectations and learn how to handle that," Little said.
"(Working the way I do), there's a part of me that loves the routine. The normalcy helps me come down from these major championships where the emotions are running so high and people feel drained and empty, but I can't afford to do that and I've got to get going."
Little's bronze followed the gold won by Australian Nina Kennedy on Wednesday morning (AEST), meaning the last nine world athletics championship medals won by Australia have been won by women, stretching back to Sally Pearson's triumph in London in 2017.
As Little soared to bronze in Budapest, Australian teammate Kelsey-Lee Barber — who was chasing an historic third world championship gold in succession — finished seventh with a throw of 61.19 metres.
Australian Kathryn Mitchell had also qualified for the final, but the Victorian suffered an adductor injury in her warm-up and withdrew.
In the women's high jump qualification, joint Australian record-holders Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson breezed through to the final.
They booked their tickets to the decider with jumps of 1.92 metres, which is 10 centimetres below the Australian record they share.
Patterson is eyeing consecutive world titles on the back of a foot injury, while Olyslagers is aiming to go one better than collecting silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
In the men's decathlon, Daniel Golubovic is the only Australian remaining after Ash Maloney and Cedric Dubler bowed out with hamstring and back injuries respectively.
After the completion of five of the 10 days, Golubovic is placed 15th and has 4032 points.
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