She may be considerably faster than all of her rivals here in Cali, but US sprinter Candace Hill is taking nothing for granted ahead of this week’s IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 in the Colombian city.

In what will be the 16-year-old’s first international competition, the Georgia native is hoping she can produce a similar performance to her world youth 100m best of 10.98, set in Seattle last month.

It was a time which made her an overnight star, an internet sensation and having made it to Cali, Hill would like a major international title to go with it.

“It would mean a lot to win a gold medal for the United States,” said Hill at the traditional pre-event press conference on Tuesday. “That (time of 10.98) shattered my goals for the season and I was like ‘I don’t have to run any faster than this.’ It’s incredible.”

Over the past three weeks, Hill admitted it has been tough to keep her mind focused on the task at hand given the level of interest from the media.