Ciona Wilson didn't waste much time between Rowing Australia closing down its National Training Centres and booking a ticket on the Spirit of Tasmania.
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"We had the option to stay in Penrith but I chose to go home and feel Tasmania is a safer place to be right now than NSW," said Tamar Rowing Club's Olympic hopeful.
"You are probably at a lot less risk from the virus and hopefully the bans on gyms may get lifted a bit quicker and maybe we'll able to get back out on the water soon."
Within a day, the International Olympic Committee had confirmed this year's Games would be postponed until 2021 and the 27-year-old was telling parents Kim and Mark that she'd be back home to reclaim her dog Lucy.
On Monday, Rowing Australia not only suspended its operations but took the radical step of advising all rowing clubs around the country to follow suit in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.
Its Tasmanian-born chief executive Ian Robson urged clubs to seek alternative ways for members to remain active.
Coming just a few months after the entire women's program was relocated to Launceston during the bushfire crisis, Wilson said it completes a traumatic summer for the sport.
"Rowing Australia have put out some guidelines in recent weeks but with the closure of gyms it really affects rowing clubs and I know Tamar has shut.
"Everyone seems to be going back to their homes and they're going to have to be very self-motivated to keep training for the next few months."
A fourth generation member of Tamar Rowing Club, Wilson was a bronze medallist in the eight at the 2018 world championships in Bulgaria having also won the Remenham Challenge Cup at the same year's Henley Royal Regatta in a new course record.
The former Launceston Church Grammar student and Sarah Hawe were the two Tasmanians among a women's sweep squad of 16 set to compete at upcoming world cups from which crews for an eight, four and pair would have been selected.
Meanwhile Hawe's Huon clubmate Georgia Nesbitt was seeking to help qualify a lightweight double for the Tokyo Games.
The closure of the national program has seen Wilson hastily organising her mandatory two-week self-isolation either at home in Launceston or at her family's East Coast shack.
After this she hopes to resume training as soon as she can even if this means a rare winter on the chilly Tamar River.
"I just may need to pull a few thermals out of the closet and it's fair to say I have not missed the -4 degree mornings," she said.
"And being housebound for 14 days is certainly not something I'm used to."