Ashley Couper is a passed drugs test away from fulfilling her Commonwealth Games dream.

The Stanford University student and perennial Front Street Mile winner ran 4 minutes 17.6 seconds in the 1500m last weekend ? breaking her own national record by nearly a second and securing qualification for next year?s Games in Melbourne.

Although she is still awaiting the results of her drug test and official confirmation of the time from race organisers, Couper cannot contain her excitement at qualifying for the Games she so narrowly missed out on four years ago.

?It?s incredible,? said a highly enthused Couper.

?I know I still have to wait for official word, but I am so excited about this it is hard to control myself. I have been training so hard and it just feels like everything is going incredibly well.

?I feel so, so good at the moment about my running and to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and break my national record is a great feeling.

?This has been coming for a while. I have come close to improving my personal best a few times but to finally get there is fantastic.

?I have had a couple of hard years with injuries but I?m keeping my fingers crossed because everything seems to be coming together for me right now.?

Couper watched the last Commonwealth Games 1500m final in Manchester with her parents, who had bought tickets for the event to watch their daughter compete.

Even though she narrowly missed out on qualification due to an injury, they went along anyway, with Ashley joining them in the stands.

?Watching that race was very frustrating for me,? she continued.

?It was awesome to be there but watching the girls out there and knowing that I can get the times to compete with them was hard for me to deal with.

?I felt that I could have made the final if I had been there and now it looks like I am going to get my chance to prove it.?

A time of 4:17:6 would be comfortably enough to qualify from the heat stages and that is the goal Couper has now set herself.

?I know it is a long way off and I haven?t even got the official piece of paper yet ? but my goal is to get to the final,? said Couper, who is expected to compete in the CAC Games later this summer for Bermuda.

?I think that is well within my reach if I continue like I am doing at the moment and then once I get to the final, it is a matter of being gutsy and just putting everything into the race and seeing what I can do.?

Although Couper has been improving her times ? her old personal best and national record was 4.18:5 ? she hasn?t been winning races and that is something she hopes to change.

?I haven?t been going out from the front,? said Couper, who finished sixth when breaking the record and qualifying in the Cardinals Meet in Stanford.

?I think I need more confidence in the early part of races because I am finding that with a lap to go I have got plenty left but by then it is too late to catch up.

?I have been concentrating on my own performances to try and improve my times but I also need to work on my race strategy, particularly early on.?

The timing of the Games ? early March ? will mean Couper having to drastically alter her training schedule in 2006, with the Front Street Mile set to play an even more important role than normal.

?Here, the coaches train us to peak around now or even later in the season,? she added.

?Next year, I will have to change that so that I go to Melbourne in peak form. That should mean that I am in even better shape for the Front Street race.

?I have always enjoyed competing in it, even though it is very early in the season for me and I am not in the best shape, but next year I will be nearer my peak.

?It is an event I always really enjoy and it should be give a nice, timely confidence boost.?