Rohan Browning admits he has "a mountain to climb" to get back to the elite echelon of world sprinting after bowing out in the opening round of the 100m at the Paris Olympics in disappointing fashion.
But the Australian flyer insists his self-belief remains strong, while he refused to blame a knee injury that has hampered him all year for the sub-par Games showing.
It was on the same stage three years ago in Tokyo that Browning rose to fame, winning his heat in 10.01 and going within a whisker of becoming just the second Australian to break the 10-second barrier.
On Saturday, the 26-year-old could manage no better than sixth place in 10.29.
Americans Fred Kerley and Kenny Bednarek (both 9.97) were the fastest qualifiers, while countryman and reigning world champ Noah Lyles also advanced with ease.
As they move on to the semis and beyond, Browning will head back to the drawing board.
"I came into this healthy for the past two months and actually I was really confident in where I was at," Browning said.
"I saw glimmers that I was in the shape I was in in Tokyo but I didn't put it together. "I was just off the pace today so I think I've got a mountain to climb to just get back into that top class. "I definitely had more confidence in myself coming into this than what the results suggested."
Before Paris, the New South Welshman and his coach Andrew Murphy made the call that his Olympic preparation would be best served by a long block of training and rehabilitation on the knee.
"Maybe with hindsight I would have benefited from some racing," he acknowledged.
"The good news to me is I feel 100 per cent healthy."
Josh Azzopardi finished a creditable fourth in his heat in 10.20 on Olympic debut - just six hundredths of a second outside his personal best.
Fellow Australian Kurtis Marschall was flawless in pole vault qualifying, eventually booking his spot in the final with a first-time clearance at 5.70m.
But mindful of limiting the workload on the left ankle he dislocated badly in April, the 27-year made the "toughest decision" of his career not to jump at 5.75m, gambling that at least two other competitors would miss that qualifying height.
To his clear relief, that's exactly what happened.
"I obviously wanted to go out in the qualifying round and do as little a number of jumps as possible and get out of it with three and get into the final," Marschall said.
"... I was so nervous for the next 30 minutes watching everyone jump (after passing at 5.75m).
"It was the most stressful 30 minutes of my life."
Marschall bombed out of the Tokyo Olympics final without registering a height, but bounced back to win the bronze medal at last year's world championships.
Abbey Caldwell ran a flawless tactical race in the opening repechage in the women's 1500m to book a spot in Sunday's semis.
With only the winners of the four repechages guaranteed to advance, Caldwell bided her time before surging to the lead at the top of the home straight, winning in two minutes 00.07 seconds against a field including 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi from Uganda.
Australian record holder Catriona Bisset was eliminated.
All three Australians bowed out in the men's 1500m repechages.
Oliver Hoare looked the most likely to advance, only to run out of gas with about 50m to go.
Bree Masters' exciting 100m campaign ended at the semi-final stage against a stacked field including winner Julien Alfred from St Lucia (10.84) and reigning world champ Sha'Carri Richardson (10.89).
Masters was seventh in the semi in 11.34, marginally slower than she ran in the opening rou
