Australian distance running star Ben St Lawrence has pictured the scene in his mind on countless occasions.

It's August 4, 2012, the final of the men's 10,000m at the London Olympics.

The 80,000-seat stadium is packed to capacity, with most of them screaming their support for local hero and 5000m world champ Mo Farah.

And toeing the start-line alongside Farah is St Lawrence.

The Sydney runner has already bettered the Olympic qualifying standard, courtesy of his national record of 27 minutes 24.95 seconds in California in May.

If he can again go under the 27:45 mark and be the first Australian home in Saturday night's 10,000m national title race at the Zatopek:10 meet, St Lawrence will guarantee himself a spot on the Olympic team.

The 30-year-old could also end up running the 5000m in London, but the longer event is his priority, especially after failing to advance from the 5000m heats at the world titles in Daegu earlier this year.

"I've got more potential to improve in the 10K," St Lawrence said on Wednesday.

"With my national record I think I can take chunks off that time, while with the 5000 I thought there wasn't as much potential to improve.

"I definitely prefer racing at night and the London 10K final is at 7.30 in the evening whereas the 5K heats are at 11 in the morning."

Farah's status as one of the 2012 host nation's great golden hopes was confirmed at the Daegu world championships, when he won gold in the 5000m and silver in the 10,000m.

St Lawrence has already had a taste of the massive support the rangy British runner enjoys on home soil.

"I raced in a pretty average 3K race over there this year in the Diamond League and the roar they had when he came out for what was just a pretty small meet was insane," said St Lawrence.

"That would just add another element to what is already an amazing thing, because running in the 10,000m at the London Olympics is going to be amazing anyway.

"I'll have friends and family in the crowd and the crowd will be going crazy because hopefully their guy is one of the favourites to win it.

"I'll be trying to upset the home crowd though."

The strong field for Saturday night's feature 10,000m race at Melbourne's new Lakeside Stadium also includes fellow Australians Craig Mottram and Dave McNeill and Kenyans Micah Kogo and Emmanuel Bett.

Kogo was the 10,000m bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Bett - who will take on the pacemaking duties - is ranked in the top 10 in the world this year.

John Salvado
AAP