Riley Day Set To Shine At Bunbury Geographe Gift

There's no doubt the last two years has been a whirlwind for Queensland sprinter Riley Day.

It all culminated a couple of weeks ago at the Commonwealth Games as Day ran for her country at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast in front of 35,000 fans.

"It was awesome, I couldn't imagine anything better," she told Daniel Leach from Triple M's Out of Bounds.

"The experience and the atmosphere of the stadium was a once in a lifetime and I'm so grateful I was there to run out in front of so many Aussies. It was the best experience of my life."

At just 18 years of age, Riley Day will have may more great experiences to come.

But in just a week's time, she'll experience something new - her first Gift event.

That will happen here in the Southwest with the WesTrac Bunbury Geographe Gift, on April 28 and 29 at the Bunbury Runners Club.

"It is my first gift, so I don't really know what to expect. I am off scratch so I'll have a lot of people in front of me. I'll just need to focus on myself and stay relaxed.

"But either way, it'll be really fun and I'm really excited to go there and have a different race."

The event is based on the Stawell Gift, which has been run since 1878, where the athletes are handicapped based on form and ability.

The best runners, like Riley Day, will start from scratch, meaning she'll be running the full 120 metres.

The men's and women's elite race hold prizemoney of $20,000 each.

Day burst onto the scene in Nitro Athletics in 2017 lining up with the likes of Usain Bolt, then making the Australian team for the IAAF World Championships.

And what the future holds? Well, she wants to celebrate her 18th birthday first, which happened just before the Commonwealth Games.

"I'm celebrating it this weekend. Just going into town with a few friends and we'll have a good time," Day said.