Australian middle-distance stars Cameron Myers and Jye Edwards are close mates and crank out hundreds of kilometres together every year, cracking jokes, chatting away and willing each other on as they chase Paris 2024 selection.
But as the Canberra-based training buddies grind out their work in the Australian capital, they know there's a considerable chance of only one of them being in the French capital when the gun is fired at the Olympic Games.
Stewart McSweyn and Oliver Hoare are expected to make the Australian men's 1500m team, leaving Myers, Edwards, Matthew Ramsden and Adam Spencer fighting for one spot.
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Speaking to Wide World of Sports ahead of Saturday's Zatopek:10 athletics meet in Melbourne, Myers said he and Edwards hadn't talked about the reality that although they're close mates and training buddies, they're also locked in a tense battle for Olympic Games selection.
"We both know how competitive it's going to be and we're both hoping we're one of those people selected," Myers told Wide World of Sports.
"We both have a lot of mutual respect for each other.
"He's a very talented athlete, so I know when he's fit and healthy he'll be a very hard person to beat."
Myers made global headlines when he became the fastest 16-year-old miler in history in Melbourne in February, clocking three minutes and 55.44 seconds (3:55.44) to edge the mark set by Jakob Ingebrigsten, the Norwegian ace who won 1500m gold at Tokyo 2020.
Myers turned 17 in June and set off to Europe for his debut overseas racing tour shortly after, competing in Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Poland.
In a scorching 1500m field at the Silesia Diamond League in July, the Lake Ginninderra College student posted 3:33.26 to nail the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games qualifiers. Instead of extending his stay in Europe to race at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, he flew back to Australia and slotted back into class with his mates.
Edwards also had a European season this year, but the injury-plagued 25-year-old's campaign was derailed by physical setbacks. He returned to Australia without an Olympic Games qualifier in the bank, before going under the knife for Achilles surgery.
Myers and Edwards are both coached by Dick Telford and managed by James Templeton, who's also the agent for Peter Bol, Joseph Deng, Gout Gout and Sarah Carli.
"We do a lot of sessions [together]. He happens to get over the top of me in a lot of sessions," Myers said of Edwards, who joined McSweyn and Hoare in the men's 1500m at Tokyo 2020.
"I know how talented an athlete he is so I'm almost looking up to him, funnily enough. I have a lot of respect for him and I know he's a great athlete, a great competitor, so it's going to be pretty tough to beat him.
"He's especially good for training. Sharing the load between the two of us makes it easier.
"And then I also get to look up to him for experience and things like that. He's obviously a very well-established racer and he's had experience on the circuit in the Diamond Leagues and stuff, so it's good to have someone like that around you."
Edwards won the Australian men's 1500m title in 2021 and is a 3:49.27 miler, but troubles with his Achilles, knees, calf muscles and shins have riddled his career.
"I definitely feel myself feeling pretty sorry for him," Myers said.
"Going into the European season this year he was quite a bit fitter than me and it was just unfortunate that he had some injuries over there.
"All the boys that I'm training with are really supportive of both us and they just want the best of both of us individually … There's a lot of support and mutual respect."
Myers has recently been churning out 110 kilometres a week and is set to line up in the men's 3000m at Zatopek:10 on Saturday, in which his chief rivals will be Ramsden and Jude Thomas.
Myers has smashed a raft of Australian junior records this year, as well as the under-18 1500m world best. He paced the famous Bowerman Mile at Eugene's Diamond League final, won by Ingebrigsten in a European record. He also struck a deal with Nike — it was only a matter of time before the multibillion-dollar juggernaut would snap up the prodigy.
But less than a month out from the new year, Myers is hungry for me.
"Before I ran that time [3:33.26 at the Silesia Diamond League] I was pretty disappointed, I suppose, because it took me so long to run the world standard," Myers said.
"I sort of had that goal going into the European season … and I thought I was in pretty good nick, so I thought I should have done that … I ran pretty average in Ostrava and I thought that was a race where I could have knocked that standard off. So I did it in the last race, which made me at least satisfied, but I sort of left wanting a lot more.
"It's good to have that going into the Olympic year, I suppose, and I've carried a lot of momentum from that."
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