The Barrack Heights youngster, who attends Shellharbour Public School, will head off to the national cross-country championships in Albany, Western Australia, later this month, less than a year after breaking his arm and dislocating his elbow, and believes he is now running better than ever.

"I had to qualify by running at school, district, regional and state to get to the Australian titles and am really excited about going in Albany," Shaw said.

"Last year I came 10th at state and missed running at the nationals, but this year I managed to run fourth to qualify and took 32 seconds off last year's time, and will be trying to run around 7mins 30 at the nationals over the 2km course."

He paid tribute to his coach Rick Watkins for the improvement, although he probably wasn't that impressed when Watkins set him a training schedule for a trip to Fiji this month.

"We had planned a family holiday in Fiji and then found out about the nationals, so Rick has set me out a training program I need to do while I am away.

"I have always loved running and had five years with Lake Illawarra Little As before switching to Albion Park this year."