The 22-year-old smashed her personal best by 35 hundredths of a second in her less-favoured 200 metres to finish third in a time of 23.45 seconds.

Australian world championship representative Jody Henry ran first in 23.36, followed by Olympic silver medallist Sally McLellan (23.19).

Whaler's performance means that if she can match her time and medal at the national titles in April she will make her inaugural Australian squad for the Commonwealth Games.

"When you do a B qualifier you need to cement that at nationals, so I'd definitely need to place at nationals to push myself into the team," Whaler said.

"I plan to do it in both the 100 and 200."

Whaler, a 100m specialist, also broke her PB in that event on Saturday by one hundredth of a second with a time of 11.62.

The performance again landed her a bronze medal, but it was 0.12 outside the Commonwealth B qualifier time of 11.50.

While there is still plenty of work ahead to guarantee a trip to Delhi, Saturday's performance has Whaler's confidence at career-high levels.

"I've been finishing in the top three every time I've raced and setting PBs every time I've raced, so it can only get better from here," she said. "I think I'm definitely running consistently and my name's out there now.

"They have seen me running seconds and thirds and PBs, so they definitely know I'm capable of doing it.

"I've just got to show them I can handle the pressure, because that's the big thing.

"When nationals come around everyone wants the same thing it's the one whose mentally tough."

Toukley high jumper Trudy Thompson also produced a PB to record a B qualifier, 1.86m, to finish fourth.