After a Paris selection "debacle" Izzi Batt-Doyle has made her stance clear as the two-time Olympian prepares to set the pace in the Sydney Marathon.
Fresh off recording the fastest half marathon by an Australian woman on home soil on the Gold Coast six weeks ago, the 30-year-old will pace current world champion and Tokyo gold medallist Peres Jepchirchir through the first 25km of Sunday's picturesque 42.2km course.
One of six Australians to meet the qualification standards for the 2024 Games, Batt-Doyle was a controversial omission from the three-woman team.
Instead she qualified for the 5000m on the track for a second-straight Games, missing the final by one place.
The Adelaide talent, who boasts a two hours, 22 minutes and 59 seconds marathon personal best, has put her track duties on hold though.
She ran April's Boston Marathon and is set to lace them up in Chicago in October.
"Unless something happens like the last selection debacle and I'm forced into doing something else," Batt-Doyle told AAP, outlining her LA 2028 marathon desires.
"This time around I'll position myself to be a lead player from very early on.
"But also, we had six girls under the standard (for Paris); I don't think this will be the case this time around, the way people come in waves at this distance and the qualifying time (being lower)."
Batt-Doyle has paced an elite field before, but never in Australia or in Sydney, where the marathon is now considered one of the world's eight majors.
"I'll be wearing a pacing bib but people will be cheering for me and thinking I'm winning and then wondering why I stopped," she smiled.
"But it's good for me as a training run, and just to experience what it's like to be at the front of a major.
"I can take away a lot of confidence if I do that job and do it well."
A day after Batt-Doyle's Gold Coast effort, fellow Australian Haftu Strintzos blew away the men's marathon field to set a new national mark of 2:06:20.
That pipped Andy Buchanan's Valencia feat from two years earlier and continued a trend Batt-Doyle has seen flow through the entire Australian athletics scene.
"On the Gold Coast I didn't anticipate I could hang on and run that fast and then Haftu's record the next day, it showed we have these opportunities to run fast in Australia," she said.
"We're breaking down the perception of what we thought was possible, people are rising to the occasion.
"The level's going up everywhere and Australia's punching above our weight with our track and field team.
"You see people getting medals or achieving things and you think, 'Why can't that be you?"
Buchanan will race his first marathon in almost 18 months and first in Australia entirely, while Hailemaryam Kiros - his 2:06:06 last year was the fastest marathon run in the country - will defend his title and world champion Alphonce Simbu will keep him honest.
For the second year running, Sydney Marathon organisers have come up with a record domestic prize money pool of $135,000.
The first Australian man and woman across the finish line will pocket $30,000, with Liam Boudin and Tim Vincent likely Buchanan's two biggest rivals.
Ellie Pashley, Caitlin Scott and Milly Clark will represent Australia in the women's elite field among 40,000 runners in total.
This AAP article was made possible by support from Asics Australia.
