Long jump sensation Brooke Stratton will take career-best form and the No.1 spot on the 2016 global rankings into the world indoor athletics championships in the United States.
The 22-year-old Victorian has smashed her personal best several times in the domestic summer season, most notably a leap of 7.05m last weekend in Perth which bettered Bronwyn Thompson's 14-year-old national record of 7m.
That effort would have been good enough to claim bronze at the London Olympics and was 20cm further than the gold medal-winning effort at the previous edition of the world indoors.
The standard is almost certain to be significantly higher this year in Portland, Oregon, which will give Stratton valuable experience at the elite level ahead of the Rio Olympics.
The field includes two-time world indoor champ Brittany Reese and her American teammate Janay deLoach, the 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist.
"I don't want to put too much pressure on myself but hopefully I can come away with a medal if I get a good jump in," said Stratton.
Australia also has a legitimate podium chance in the men's long jump in Fabrice Lapierre, who claimed a surprise silver medal at last year's world outdoor championships in Beijing.
Lapierre's 2016 best of 8.08m only ranks him sixth on the entry list for the world indoors but he is a proven big-event performer.
The man to beat for the gold is American young gun Marquis Dendy.
Alana Boyd is the first member of the eight-strong Australian team in action on Friday (AEDT) in the women's pole vault.
The two-time Commonwealth champ broke her Oceania record with a clearance of 4.77m in Queensland in January.
But such is the fast-improving nature of the discipline that six of Boyd's opponents have already gone even higher this year, headed by American star Jenn Suhr (5.03m).
The world indoors is the first major international meet to take place since Russian athletes were banned from competition after a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) catalogued evidence of systemic doping.
Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus are also under notice from the sport's world governing body to clean up their acts.
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