James Preston will likely look back on this week as one of best of his life.
The 27-year-old has been named in the New Zealand athletics team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just days after breaking the late Sir Peter Snell's 62-year-old NZ record in the 800 metres.
Preston said he's been working hard towards this moment for a long time.
"It's really exciting to get the opportunity to wear the fern on the Olympic stage and get to showcase the effort my team has put in during the build up."
His ticket to Paris shouldn't have come as a surprise - on Sunday, Preston clocked 1:44:04 to win the men's 800m at the Merck Running Festival meet in Pfungstadt, Germany - surpassing Peter Snell's then world record of 1:44:30 set in 1962.
The time also surpassed the Olympic entry standard.
"The best way to honour what he did was to try and better it, so to be able to do that is amazing. I'm hoping that someone will come along and break my record one day and better what I've done."
Preston's stellar week is on top of a breakout year for the Wellington engineer. In March, he ran a New Zealand 800m indoor record of 1:47:59 at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. He then ran 1:44.87 to win the New Zealand national title.
He will take part in the men's 800m heats on August 7 and there's little time for rest in between.
"We aren't as focused on running the standard right now, so hopefully I'll get in some more competitions and run a wee bit faster."
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