The 17-year-old Launceston Church Grammar year-11 student has been juggling exams with training but will run in the 120m Latrobe Gift on Tuesday before turning his sights to Devonport later in the week.

``Devonport is the one I've been looking forward to for the whole season and has been one of my biggest goals,'' Lahey said.

``I've been training really hard but the form has not been as good as I would have liked.

`` But hopefully I can improve through the carnivals and find some form for the national championships in March.''

Lahey joined coach Peter Fortune this season following the retirement of his former coach Fay Denholm and said he felt the move was paying dividends.

``The training group has got a bit smaller, which allows `Fort' to pick up on individual faults more than in a bigger group,'' he said.

``He's got a lot of experience coaching and I've really enjoyed that.''

Lahey played state league football with South Launceston last season and said he thought the two sports complemented each other.

He will run off a mark of 24m in the 400m Devonport Gift, which he said was better than he had expected.

``I don't have bad heats so I should be able to make the finals hopefully and my big aim is to try to win Devonport,'' he said.