Lachlan Kennedy led home the fastest trio of Australians in a single race as he threatened the magical 10-second barrier in the 100m at the Perth Track Classic.
On a night when Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage put the meet on the international radar with a world-leading 85.41m in the men's javelin, the 21-year-old Queenslander clocked 10.03 seconds to become the equal third-fastest Australian of all time.
Only national record-holder Patrick Johnson (9.93) and Rohan Browning (10.01) have run faster, while his time on Saturday night was equal to the mark set by Matt Shirvington at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.
Kennedy boldly declared ahead of the meet that he felt ready to take down Johnson's Australian record.
His summer form has supported that ambition. The Olympian clocked a world-leading 6.43sec over 60m in January, followed by a then-personal best 10.17sec on Australia Day.
The performance also fed expectations of further breakthroughs at this month's world indoor championships in China and outdoors at the world athletics titles in Tokyo in September.
"I feel like I can do something special this year at world indoors if I can get that start right," Kennedy told broadcaster 7plus.
Kennedy's Paris Olympics teammates Josh Azzopardi (10.09) and teenager Sebastian Sultana (10.11) finished just behind him in a high-quality race.
Another Queenslander, Bree Rizzo, also gave the 100m national record a shake in the women's 100m when she won her fifth consecutive race this summer in 11.09sec.
It was quicker than the 11.10sec by Torrie Lewis, but she was denied the record after benefiting from an illegal 3m/second tail wind.
"This week I knew I wanted to come as best recovered as I could because I knew something special was sitting there," Rizzo said.
"To run that's pretty special even though it's windy. I'm proud my legs could run that fast, so I'm hoping I can do it legal(ly) soon."
Rizzo's mark was the fifth-fastest all-time wind-assisted performance by an Australian woman.
In a boost to the country's 4x100m relay depth, Mia Gross (11.20) and Stawell Gift winner Chloe Mannix-Power (11.30) also clocked encouraging times.
In the field, Paris Olympian Liam Adcock soared into the Australian all-time top five when he leaped 8.33m in the men's long jump.
Earlier 14-year-old Emilia Reed from Queensland approached a Torrie Lewis state age group record when she posted a wind-assisted 11.39sec for second, behind Leah O'Brien (11.33) in the women's 100m B race.
