After two years of almost but not quite, Launceston runner James Hansen is putting it all on the table.
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The state's third-ever sub-four-minute miler has next year's Tokyo Olympics fixed firmly in his sights and will leave nothing in the tank chasing down selection.
To secure an Olympic ticket the 26-year-old must either run a qualifier (3:35.0 or quicker) or be ranked in Australia's top three 1500m runners, and while both will take some doing, Hansen has every reason to be confident.
After narrowly missing Commonwealth Games selection in 2018, Hansen has taken his game to a new level this year by recording PBs in his pet 1500m discipline (3:39.10) as well as the 3000m (7:53.98), 5000m (13:58.85), and 10k (29:52).
Winning his first European race in Belgium at the end of the last season, Hansen shot up to a career-high world ranking of 47 and is among the favourites to take out the 1500m at this weekend's Zatopek 10 in Victoria.
"I'm pretty confident that I've definitely moved a lot further in myself," the former Riverside High School student said.
"I've improved year on year and I've been there every year, I've been in the top five at nationals for the last few years and I've got that confidence that if I keep moving forward that breakthrough can come.
"I just feel like I've been so close for so long and this year has really been about taking some risks in my training, training harder and doing those things that will give me a shot at really making it this year.
"Since 2016 when I thought about whether I wanted to keep running or not, 2020 was as far as I looked and I said 'after 2020 I don't even know if I'll do athletics any more', so for me this year is pretty much all or nothing in terms of what I want to get out of myself.
"There probably are guys out there that are expected to make the team a lot more than me and I feel like I'm an outsider to do it, but that gives me the attitude that I've got nothing to lose and to give it everything that I can to sneak up to one of those places on the team."
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Despite living in Victoria for the past five years, Hansen is very much a Tasmanian.
The World Vision employee got married in his home state last year and is likely to return again this summer for the iconic Christmas Carnival Series.
Hansen speaks proudly about how Commonwealth Games pair Jake Birtwhistle and Stewart McSweyn have made Tasmanian athletes fearsome once more, and should he make the cut for Tokyo, there's little doubt which state he'll be flying the flag for.
"I'd be really proud to represent Tasmania at the Olympics - even though I live in Victoria I still feel like a Tasmanian at heart," he said.
"I feel like growing up in Tassie has been a big advantage for me in terms of training and it's made me more motivated to make the most of my opportunity to be in Victoria and train.
"I feel like if I did make it I'd be representing the state as well which is something really special to me.
"With Stewy and how well he's doing ... I remember growing up in Tassie and we were seen as pretty average at running.
"If a Tasmanian won a medal it was like the biggest thing in the world, but by the time I was 15,16, it was normal for us to be winning gold - Birtwhistle, different people.
"And now people say 'you're from Tasmania, you guys are just tougher' and stuff and I think it's true - we've got things a bit harder but there's something special about where we come from, so I think that's been a big part of my journey and a lot of others."
After the Zatopek 10, Hansen will compete in the Albie Thomas Mile in New South Wales with his usual Falls Creek altitude training camp to follow in the new year.
Much of his schedule thereafter will be dependent on where ranking points are up for grabs, but is certain to include Sydney's national championships in March.
It was there two years ago that Hansen briefly took the lead in the final straight of the 1500m final before being pipped by 0.05 of a second for third place.
That run instilled plenty of belief that he could match it with the country's best, but also underlined that further improvement was needed to reach his goals.
One change has seen Hansen take Sundays off every week, allowing the former state record holder to work harder on the remaining six days before resetting on the seventh.
Another change - which he credits as bringing about his biggest improvement - has been in his mind.
In replacing a fixed mindset with a growth mindset, Hansen no longer sees a bad race or training session as a failure, but instead, as an opportunity to learn and improve.
"A big thing I've learnt is the importance of just focusing on the process of getting better every day and focusing on the day and knowing that if I do the work on a daily basis, that will pay off long-term," he said.
"Sometimes I feel terrible, especially with the loads I'm doing, but I know as long as I get that done the results will come.
"In 2018 that's when I actually believed I can compete with these guys, but I feel like every year it's been that same thing - I've been that guy that drifts at the end or something happens.
"I want to make this year the year where I don't, where I'm able to hold on.
"This has been a dream that's been running for a long time and you have lots and lots of doubts to whether you can actually do it or not.
"Out of the guys that are there I wouldn't rate myself as being one of the most talented, but I do believe I've been willing to put a lot more work in than other people have and I've had something inside of me that's believed that it is possible and it's pretty cool to just be on that journey.
"For it to happen I think it would be amazing, but just chasing that has been an amazing journey as well."
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