Australia’s own Hannah Montana of the sprint world

Youngster Riley Day is balancing her life as a schoolgirl with being a rising star of the track.

New sprint star Riley Day in Sydney as Athletics Australia launches its national championships. Picture: Britta Campion

For the moment, Riley Day has a foot in two worlds.

At home she’s a normal schoolgirl, doing Year 12 at Beaudesert High School in rural Queensland, who headed off to a Justin Bieber concert last night.

But at the athletics track she’s a budding sprint star, who banters with Usain Bolt, took down an international field to win the 150m race during the Nitro Series last month, and does media calls in Sydney to launch the national championships.

Day described her life in the last month as a bit like Hannah Montana, the sitcom in which Miley Cyrus played a schoolgirl by day and pop star by night. However the 16-year-old sprinter is taking it all in her stride and said she was content to develop as an athlete at her own pace.

“I think I’ve just come down from everything,’’ she said. “I’m back at school but I think I prefer the high life to the school life at the moment.’’

“Coming back from Nitro to go to school, I think I hit a wall every so often and started thinking about Nitro, but I just told myself to concentrate on this.’’

Day will return to Sydney in two weeks to contest the under 18 sprints at the national titles, having decided not to enter the open events this year.

The junior, senior and Paralympic nationals are all being combined in an eight-day athletics extravaganza, which will run from March 26 to April 2 at Sydney Olympic Park.

Among Australians, only national 100m champion Melissa Breen has run faster than Day’s best of 11.36sec in the last year, but the teenager said she was not tempted to test herself against the senior women again this year.

“Nitro has happened and it’s the best memories I have for athletics but now I just have to set my sights on nationals and youth Commonwealth Games (in the Bahamas, July 19-23) and I’m looking to those goals and trying to achieve them,’’ she said

“I think I’ll get to the opens when I’m up to it. I’m going to try to qualify for the Commonwealth Games team next year, that’s definitely in my sights and it will be on my home track as well (on the Gold Coast).’’

She said the Nitro experience had given her great motivation and she had learned a few things from Bolt that she would put into her own racing from now on.

“I think I learned this from Usain Bolt, that he doesn’t take everything so seriously,’’ she said.

“He only takes it seriously when he has to, so that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to have fun with it all, take in the experience and just enjoy it.’’

Day is one of two outstanding female prospects in the under 18 ranks this year, after 15-year-old Keely Small upset the senior women to win the 800m at the Canberra Grand Prix on Saturday in an Australian under 18 record of 2:01.46.

At yesterday’s launch of the national titles, NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres revealed that he wanted to secure a Nitro meet for Sydney after watching the launch of the innovative three-meet series in Melbourne this year.

“I’d love to see a Nitro meet in Sydney and I’ve spoken to Athletics Australia and the IAAF about it,’’ he said.

Destination NSW would have to stump up some cash and the Vctorian Major Events Company would have to agree as it is already signed up, but Athletics Australia is open to the idea.