Playing for Australia, the 17-year-old claimed gold for Australia at the World School Sevens tournament earlier this month. 

And not only that, the Bathurst star co-captained the side that downed New Zealand 29-5 in the decider, as well as being the tournament’s best player. 

It’s fair to say the MacKillop College student is one of Bathurst’s most promising sport talents. 

However, she’s being humble about her recent experience, rather saying it was enjoyable to defeated New Zealand, the side who beat Australia in the past two deciders.

“It was really good to come back and beat them after two times losing,” she said.

“It was a really good opportunity to captain the side.

“I was very surprised [to be named player of the tournament], that’s for sure. I didn’t think I’d get it, but it was a good feeling to be named it.” 

“It was just good to comeback and beat New Zealand, considering we lost to them at Oceania earlier this year.” 

Australia started the tournament in the group stage, defeating New Zealand Dutch in the opening match 17-12.

New Zealand Dutch’s five-point loss was the closest any side came to defeating Australia. 

Whitfeld’s team followed it up with wins against Cook Islands (31-5) and Japan (38-6) to go through the group stage undefeated, setting up a semi-final against Japan.

The Japanese were no match for Australia, going down 35-12, sending Whitfeld and her teammates into the decider against the hosts.

The win for Australia was not just sweet revenge for last year’s tournament, but for the Oceania under 18s tournament earlier this year. 

Whitfeld was excited to see so many young players step up during the tournament

“We had a lot of young girls coming through, so I think that was a good experience for them,” she explained. 

“We had a lot of players injured, so they had plenty of opportunities to come up and play in the final and play a part. That was really good.”

She also said it was hard for her to pick a standout player, saying the victory in the gold medal match was won on a team performance rather than individual brilliancy.

“Everyone improved after every game. Our final was a team effort,” she said.

“There was about five tries in the final and they were scored by a different player. It was a team effort, more than just one player.”

There’s no major tournaments for Whitfeld on the horizon at the moment, so she’s focused on returning to training in the new year and working towards getting another opportunity to go overseas in 2019. 

Whitefeld’s gold medal and player of the tournament prize is just a couple of her already growing personal trophy cabinet.

She has been named player of the tournament in the domestic AON 7s competition, won an Oceania Sevens title with the senior Australia side, and claimed the Western Region Academy of Sport athlete of the year crown.