Racheal Nachula hasn't ever run indoors before but Zambia's only representative at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships, Valencia, Spain (7-9 March) isn't too worried about her debut under cover.
“I'm very excited, in fact. The importance of competing in Valencia is that it will help me gain more international experience for the World Junior Championships later in the year,” said the teenage 400m runner, who turned just 18 in January.
“Everybody talks about the Olympics and I'm hopeful of getting a qualifying time for those as well but the World Junior Championships are my big target. I think I can get a medal there... and no Zambian has won a medal at the World Junior Championships. As for the World Indoor Championships, I juts want to do my best,” added Nachula, who has more than a passing physical resemblance to her heroine and Mozambican middle-distance legend Maria Mutola.
Mutola will be trying to win an unprecedented eighth indoor title in Valencia and while Nachula's own ambitions are much more modest, they are certainly not misplaced.
As a 16-year-old, she reached the semi-finals of 400m at the last World Junior Championships in Beijing, missing out on a place in the final by less than one-tenth of a second and she has improved since.
Despite her tender years, Nachula hold the Zambian national records over both 200m and 400m. In Valencia, he hopes to add the long-standing indoor 400m mark to her list of accolades.
“I've been based in South Africa (at a residential college in Pretoria) for the last year and there are no indoor tracks here, none in Africa I think, so I've just been talking with my coach about things such as running on the banked corners and where to pass people. However, I'm curious to find out what it's like running indoors for real.”
“The World Junior Championships will also be my first trip to Europe. I've been to Asia for the last World Junior Championships, Australia for last year's Commonwealth Games and many countries in Africa but not so far to Europe,” added Nachula.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
