Hi everyone, my name is Hayley Reynolds. I am 18 years old and I have recently been selected to represent Australia at the Under 20 World Athletics Championships to be held in Cali, Columbia in August!

Although this is an amazing opportunity that I have worked extremely hard to achieve over the last few years, part of being on the team requires a $5500 team levy, to be paid to Athletics Australia. This levy covers Australian uniform, food, accommodation, flights, transfers and competition entry.

I started training for athletics when I was only 11 years old and since then my passion for the sport grew stronger! At the beginning of last year after finishing high school I decided to move out of home in the Lockyer Valley into Brisbane to access better facilities to give myself the best opportunity to qualify. Since then, I faced many challenges of moving away from home, changing training squads, juggling University studies and battling a recently diagnosed autoimmune disease called Graves Disease which severely affected my training. Though, with the help of my amazing coaches, family, and training partners, I qualified for my first Australian team and I couldn’t be happier!

Being an elite athlete in Australia comes with huge commitment and doesn't leave many working hours left in the week. Any donation would be immensely appreciated and would be a huge help in this next step in my athletics career!