Fresh off his best-ever sequence of races, the prospect of finally joining the exclusive sub-10 second club has never felt more real for Rohan Browning.
The 25-year-old's flying effort of 10.02 seconds to take 100m gold at the national championships on Saturday was the fastest by an Australian on home soil.
The only quicker efforts were Patrick Johnson's 20-year-old national record of 9.93 in Mito, Japan and Browning's own PB of 10.01 set in the heats at the Tokyo Olympics.
He celebrated the victory over a few quiet beers on Saturday night with coach Andrew Murphy.
"We haven't been through the data yet but we were both very happy with it," Browning told AAP.
"It was similar to Tokyo, but the obvious difference was the occasion.
"It's early in the year, it's the nationals which is obviously important, but it's a completely different state of mind to the Olympics or to a world champs."
For coach and athlete, the most pleasing aspect was that Browning improved his times from 10.18 in the heats to 10.17 in the semis and 10.02 in the final.
That was in stark and welcome contrast to his campaigns at last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games and at the Tokyo Olympics, where Browning was run out in the semis in 10.09, the day after his scorching heat run of 10.01.
"The one thing that Murph always prioritises is the very unglamorous goal of improving your average," said Browning.
"That way you can go to a major championships and know that on an average day, with an average performance, you are still capable of going through all the way.
"You can always have those those outlier performances, maybe a great day with two-metre tailwinds or at altitude.
"But we try not to put too much emphasis on the season's best and focus more on that average.
"That's why I was so happy with the sequence."
Browning's next competition is likely to be the Seiko Golden grand prix meet in Yokohama on May 21.
Then it's off to Europe, where he hopes to get 100m starts in several Diamond League meets - a prospect that will have been significantly enhanced by the 10.02 run in Brisbane.
Browning will stay in Europe until August's world championships in Budapest, by which time his CV could well include that elusive sub-10 time.
