The Kinross Wolaroi School student took out the junior girls Australian Mountain Running Championships 5km event at Mt Tennent in Canberra by nearly three minutes to book her second trip in as many years to the worlds in Switzerland this September.

Wallington finished the searching course in 31 minutes 34 seconds to comfortably beat home Batemans Bay runner Madison Rutter (34:27) and Sydney’s Charlotte Wilson (39:29).

After a tough period at the start of the 5km course, Wallington powered home to further enhance her already impressive resume in defending the title she won last year.

“(The race is) a hard thing to do. I don’t think anyone can do it without a bit of a struggle. The first two or three kilometres were the steepest - but the last kilometre flattened out and I felt good,” the 17-year-old said.

“I prefer cross-country over track running - mountain running is a more extreme version of that and I enjoy it.”

Wallington claimed a bronze at last year’s worlds, an experience she described as “amazing”.

“It was amazing. As a first international event I couldn’t have been happier with how it went. To come away with third was great,” she said.

“That’s what my training will be building towards. I can’t wait to go over there again and hopefully do well.

“My times and training have been going really well lately, so hopefully I can continue improving on that.”

Long-term, Wallington hopes one day to be able to represent Australia at the Olympics in the marathon.

“The Olympics are definitely an aim of mine,” she said.

“Maybe (I can make) the next ones (2012 in London) but it would most likely be the following games.

“I’ll hopefully be able to do some track running like the 10km, too. I just want to represent Australia as much as I can.”