With a hop, skip and a jump Albany Athletics Club’s Mason Watkins has landed himself a call-up to the Australia under-18 team for the Oceania Championships in Darwin.

It will be his debut in the green and gold and to say he is stoked would be an understatement.

The Darwin event, from May 18-23, is the highlight of his junior career so far and he will compete in both long and triple jumps.

There are only seven WA athletes in the Australian under-18 team for the meet — clubmate Ginger Gleeson being another — and Watkins was selected following bronze-medal performances in the national championships in Brisbane last month.

Those third places were achieved despite him coming back from an ankle injury and came in the under-18 and under-20 triple jump events.

His 14.68m leap in the under-20 event would have been good enough for gold in the lower age group.

Given the circumstances, where he was well below his best in both jumps, Watkins, who is still only 16, was happy with his performance.

“I was just coming off the injury and the day before I flew to Brisbane, I tweaked my back,” he said.

“I was pretty happy because I hadn’t been able to train as well as I should.”

Ranked No.1 in Australia in under-18 triple jump — and at No.2 in long jump — Watkins heard about his selection for the Oceania Championships via a text from his mum, Liz.

“She sent me a screenshot of an email — and she had underlined the bit where it said the news was confidential and I wasn’t to tell anyone,” he said.

He has already been checking out the triple jump record for the Oceania event which was last held in Fiji two years ago.

“I’ve had a bit of a look, and the record is only 20cm above my PB and I think if I can get back to where I was before the injury I have a chance of the championship best,” he said.

Watkins started in athletics having a go at most things but has always been drawn to the jumps, despite the toll both take on the body.

“I enjoyed the jumps, and I entered a State championship and got a medal — so that early success got me training,” he said.

Now at boarding school in Perth in order to further his athletics career, the talented teenager said he was looking forward to representing his country.

“I was pretty stoked to be picked but I am ready to hit the big stage,” Watkins said.