Australian 100m sprinter Rohan Browning reckons give him two months and he'll finally shave off the tenths of a second he needs to join the sub-10 club.
Browning's competitive season kicked off with a victory in his pet event at the Adelaide Invitational on Saturday night.
And while describing his winning time of 10.25 seconds as "sluggish", it has given him heart he can finally join Patrick Johnson in rare air: an Australian to run sub-10 seconds in the event.
"I really want to go sub-10 this year," Browning told AAP after his latest 100m victory.
"And every race is a good opportunity to try and do it.
"That time is where I need to be to at this stage of my career, I definitely want to go sub-10 and hopefully get the Australian record."
Johnson famously clocked 9.93 in 2003 and Browning came agonisingly close to his goal in July 2021 when logging 10.01.
Browning, who has posted six sub-10.10 times, reckons by the time the national championships roll around in Brisbane on April 19-21, he'll be ripe to crack the sub-10 code.
"It will take a really well-executed race, in good shape, against really world-class competition," he said.
"I think around the national championships, Brisbane."
But the 25-year-old shrugs off external pressure to join Johnson in the sub-10 class.
"I just have to enjoy it," Browning said.
"And I do, I really enjoy training and turning up every day, and the lifestyle and the competition and the challenge of it.
"So I really don't feel the pressure beyond what expectations I place on myself."
Browning was the major drawcard in Adelaide at a meet where the United States' 2016 Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz endured a painful return to competition.
Centrowitz missed the entire of last year because of a knee reconstruction and lagged into last place in the 800m in Adelaide on return to racing.
"Man, the last lap was just a lactic acid, - what do they call it? Rigor mortis," Centrowitz told AAP.
"I couldn't feel my legs in that last 100 (metres), almost to the point where I felt like to the point where I was going to fall over. I have never been that fatigued in a race."
Sydneysider Lachlan Raper won the 800m in one minute 47.73 seconds with Centrowitz last in 1:56.01.
Australia's Commonwealth Games champion Matt Denny won the discus with a best throw of 64.39 metres while other winners included Naa Anang in the women's 100m in a time of 11.39 and Ellie Sanford in the women's 800m in 2:01.18.
