Zac Bailey wins gold at School Sport Australia Track and Field Championships as part of NSW relay team

Now he is a state, and national medallist, and one of the best sprinters for his age in the country.

The Timbumburi Year 6 student had something golden and shiny to show off to his school-mates on Wednesday, after being part of the the victorious NSW 11yrs boys 800m sprint medley relay team at the School Sport Australia Track and Field Championships in Brisbane.

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Bailey ran the first leg, and set them up for what would be a gold medal-winning and record-breaking performance.

He was selected for the relay team on the back of his performance in his 200m, which he finished fifth in the final of in a time of 26.45secs.

It would have been a new personal best had he not run 26.26secs to place fourth in his heat and win his way through to the final.

Bailey admitted he was surprised by how well he went, but was understandably very happy with his runs, as was his coach Jay Stone.

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"The two fastest times he's ever run were in the heat and the final, so you can't do much than that," Stone said.

"He was pretty close to the medals too. I think he was only a metre or so out of the bronze medal, so it was very close."

There was only 0.16 of a second in it.

His first time competing at the national level Bailey enjoyed the experience.

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"It was fun, long days but I got to meet a few people," he said.

Adding to his silver in the 200m from the state championships, Bailey said the gold "felt pretty good", adding that it "was really good" to be selected as one of the relay runners.

He wasn't the only Tamworth athlete to bring home gold with Olivia Earl continuing her great year.

The Carinya student won gold in the 12yrs girls multi-class discus, throwing 23.49m and eclipsing the distance that won her the state gold, and record, by over 2m, and then backed up to win gold in the shot put.

Walcha's Blaine Cooney meanwhile finished eighth in 10yrs boys discus, while Attunga's Jacob Wright was eighth in the 12yrs boys shot put.

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