The 2014 Forbes Sportsperson of the Year currently has her eyes set on making the Australian team for the World Junior Championships in Athletics which will be held in Poland in July this year.

Jess has been in training for the 3km and 5km events and will be attending selection trials for these races over the next month.

Selection for the 3km event will be in Adelaide on Saturday, February 20, while selection for the 5km event will be held in Perth at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in March, at which Jess will also be competing in the 1500m race.

The Australian team will take the top two people in every athletics event to the World Junior Championships, so to qualify Jess will need to have the first or second best times for her distances.

On top of that, everyone competing in the world championships will need to make the qualifying standard times.

“Australia can take two people in every event but it doesn’t matter unless you run the qualifying standard,” Jess said.

“Even if you’re the best in Australia, if you don’t have the time, you won’t go.”

The entry standard for the 3km event is 9:34.9, while the qualifying time for the 5km event is 16:40.00.

A few weeks ago Jess ran the qualifying time for the 3km event, doing it in 9:21.91 - five seconds quicker than the entry standard.

“We set up a race the other week; two boys I’ve been training with paced me through,” Jess said.

“The boys paced me through 2km in 6:20 so I just had to hold on from there.

“I was really happy with the run.”

Jess said there are only two other girls in Australia who have made that time, giving her a pretty good chance at the selection trials.

“One girl is one second quicker than me and the other is three seconds slower, so it will be a really good race,” she said.

“There’s a few other girls that are just over, so they’ll be trying to get under.

“I’m pretty confident, training’s been going good.

“I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing because it’s working.”

Jess also recently ran her first 5km on track and recorded a time of 16:53, only 13 seconds outside the world qualifier, which she was pleased with considering it was a solo race so she had no one to set the pace for her.

“That put me into the second fastest time in Australia,” Jess said. 

“Only me and another girl have done it in under 17 minutes; there’s another girl that’s 20 seconds behind, so I’m definitely in the top 2.”

She is confident she can improve her time in the selection trials in Perth.

“Even though I haven’t ran the qualifier, to come that close to it is pretty good,” Jess said.

“Hopefully getting the right race with a lot of people I can get dragged around and get quicker.”

Interestingly enough, Jess has only recently begun targeting the 3km and 5km events, having previously favoured the 800m and 1600m.

Jess was out with an injury for three months over winter last year and since returning to training has focussed on longer distances.

“It was always 800m and 1600m but since coming back from injury the longer distances suit my style better,” she said.

“Coming back I was doing a lot of longer, slower stuff to get a base back.

“I’ve got a new coach now and he thinks I suit those distances better.”

Jess finished school at Forbes High School in 2014 and is currently living in Canberra where she is completing a degree in PE teaching.