TUMBULGUM athletics allrounder, 12-year-old Gillon Preston, will be in for a busy time at the New South Wales All Schools Track and Field Championships at Homebush on October 13-16.

The Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School student will contest four events for which he has qualified - high jump, long jump, short hurdles and the discus.

A packed program but Gillon is not one to baulk at hard work.

At the recent NSW Combined Independent Schools Athletics Championships, the young fella contested seven events over two days - two in the field and the other five on the track.

He scored gold in the 80m hurdles, silver in the high jump, bronze in the 1500m, fourth in the long jump and finished out of a place in the 100m, 200m and 800m.

Those short trips are definitely not up Gillon's alley - once the journeys get up to 3000m and beyond, the dead-set stayer comes into his own.

The programming at the All School titles has forced Gillon to bypass the 3000m.

"The 3000m is one of the first events - it is always a hard race to run in and I think that if I did compete, it wouldn't help my chances in the other events," Gillon said.

He says his best hopes of snaring medals are in the hurdles and the high jump in which he jumped a personal best in grabbing the silver at the CIS titles.

"I jumped 1.56m and broke my previous best by five centimetres," Gillon said.

A terrific effort because Gillon stands about that height.

Gillon has had a memorable year in athletics, winning a swag of events at school, zone, regional and state meets.

Perhaps his greatest achievement was bolting away with the CIS state cross country title and then finishing eighth out of nearly 100 runners in the NSW All Schools Cross Country Championships at which he competed "feeling a bit crook" .

Not that this young man uses that as an excuse. His mum Robyn revealed that fact while Gillon exclaimed "aw, mum".

It isn't cheap having a budding sporting star in the family and the family finances always take a hit when Gillon has to compete a long way from home.

However, the likeable young bloke is doing his bit this time to lighten the load on the Preston purse.

He is initiating several fund-raising ventures, including opening a stall "to sell things" in Tumbulgum and a garage sale.