Ararat's Paddy Turner and Sarah Blizzard will be under the watchful eye of the region for the Stawell Gift carnival.
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The two "hometown" hopefuls will step out onto Central Park with what can be described as a hometown feeling.
Turner will be competing in the 70 metre, 200m, 400m and the 120m Stawell Gift.
2019 will be Turner's fifth time competing at Stawell, no easy feat at just 19-years-old.
"I was in the Gift heats last year - competing against my training partner Mason Keast and Matt Rizzo," he said.
"This will be my second year of competing, which should be good fun."
Turner said he will take the experience from last year into this year's start.
"It's a massive step up - it's a race like no other," he said.
"With different preparation, the starters and the atmosphere, I have taken that all on board and hopefully do a bit better."
Turner will be running off 8.25m in the 2019 Gift.
"Like any runner, I would like to be out a bit further but that's running and I'll run from where I am," he said.
Sarah Blizzard will make her way back to the region on Thursday after one last training session on Wednesday night.
"I'll head down to the track on Friday and have a bit of a warm up," she said.
"I competed in Nationals in early April so these last two weeks have been a bit of recovery from that and a bit of maintenance.
"It's all about trying to peak at the right time."
22-year-old Blizzard will run off 3.75 and will compete at Central Park for the ninth time.
"Originally I didn't understand how big the event was," she said.
"The first year I was there I was quite surprised. Making the finals for four years is so special - it's an amazing feeling.
"If I ever won, which will happen one year, I don't think I would be able to make a speech - I couldn't put into words how much it would mean."
When discussing her training lead up for the running season, Blizzard said first up, is a month after Easter.
"We focus on heavy training throughout winter - a lot of circuits and lost of extra fitness," she said.
"Come later into in the year we move into a full speed phase of training and some competitions.
"In February we pull back on the heavy training and we just maintain our competition preparation."
Blizzard hasn't had a smooth run into the 2018-19 running season with hamstring issues.
"The rehab for that took a bit of time and then had an achilles issue after that," she said. "I've still ran faster than I did last season so I'm pretty happy with how it is all going."
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