Rocking her "lucky charm" sunglasses on an overcast morning in Birmingham, young Kiwi athlete Maddi Wesche didn't take long to show how bright her future is in the women's shot put.
The 23-year-old qualified for Thursday morning's final with her first throw of the competition, finishing with the third highest effort in qualifying with her 18.08m performance - almost a metre ahead of the fourth-best qualifier and past the 18m automatic qualifying mark.
Wesche told 1News it was "always the plan" to get qualifying out of the way early.
"Eighteen metres is the standard so it was something I could definitely achieve so I'm just happy we could get it done."
Coming off a strong World Athletics Championship campaign last month in which she finished seventh with a personal best throw of 19.50m.
The only other competitors from that event in Oregon are Canada's Sarah Mitton, who qualified first on Tuesday evening, and Jamaican Danniel Thomas-Dodd who had the second-best throw of qualifying.
"I hope to add to the medal tally," she said.
"I came into this with a mindset of what I wanted to do... World Champs was definitely a good warm up for the Comm Games."
A medal will continue the whirlwind trajectory for Wesche after she made her Olympic debut last year in Tokyo with retiring great Dame Valerie Adams, finishing sixth while sporting some fashionable sunglasses throughout which made her a fan favourite back home.
Wesche again wore the sunglasses on Tuesday evening and still had them on for her interviews after.
"I don't know if it's the weather for sunnies but they're kind of my good luck charm after Tokyo so I had to keep them," she said.
"I was thinking people might think I look a little silly for wearing sunnies in this weather but you never know what this UK weather is going to do for us."
With the women's final taking place in an evening session on Thursday morning NZT, Wesche said she was unsure if she'd still sport the sunglasses for the final.
"Lucky charm" or not, she'll still be bringing her A game.
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