“I think I did really well. I was expecting to come, in the teens sort of thing,” the year 5 boy said.

“I was surprised to be it the top six, actually.”

Tom qualified in the athletes with disability event.

He ran in the ages 8 to 13 group at Eastern Creek, and the 10-year-old figured there were about 38 boys in the event.

His mother Micelle said the race might have been memorable, but Tom was really wowed by the smorgasbord breakfast provided at the hotel and saw snow for the first time on the trip down to Sydney.

Running is one of Tom’s favourite sports.

“I started running whenever I could run, like I think that might have been three, maybe four,” he said.

“I just like the satisfaction, and I just like moving quickly.

Tom said his mother runs with him sometimes, but he has a course around the farm and a three kilometre road route he uses to train himself.

He said the finals were a little different to his normal training regime.

“Normally my strategy is sprint to get my position, then jog and then sprint at the end, but because it was just basically flat and not many hills or anything, I pretty much tried to run the whole way,” he said.

“I didn’t get any cramps or stitches.”

Tom said he was close to third place for three-quarters of the two kilometre race, but was overtaken at the end.

He is committed to keep running and will consider Little Athletics and cross country again in the near future.