![Rose Davies. Picture by Josh Callinan Rose Davies. Picture by Josh Callinan](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/gNecaFSpqFSLkittedmeiY/45faf136-1254-439f-ab47-94b68eaef209.jpg/r0_492_3456_2059_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
ROSE Davies has been building towards this moment.
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Every session, every race over this Olympic cycle geared towards the Paris athletics venue State de France on August 3 (2:10am, AEST).
And according to the Merewether runner's coach Scott Westcott, all with one Games goal in mind.
"The aim is to finish in the top eight in the heat," Westcott told the Newcastle Herald.
"That's what all this has been about, that's what the last couple of years have been about, making a final."
Davies, 24, will represent Australia in the women's 5000 metres.
It marks her second Olympic appearance but much different, both on and off the track, this time around compared to her debut experience at a COVID-impacted Tokyo three years ago.
"Tokyo had no crowds and it would have been a bit surreal. Then they were locked away for two weeks [quarantine] once they got back into the country, so you didn't have that immediate sense of what you'd done either. It was a strange time on so many different levels," Westcott said.
"But as an athlete Rose is a lot more rock solid [now]. She was flat to the boards qualifying for Tokyo. Her qualifying performance turned out to be her fastest run of the year and she couldn't get close to it at the Games.
"Whereas this time, we know there's plenty in the tank and she's still on the way up."
In the space of three months earlier this year, between February 15 and May 19, Davies became Australian champion over 5000m and broke the 15-minute barrier on three occasions.
This culminated in a national record of 14:41.65, falling 26 seconds inside her previous personal best from 2022.
More recently she clocked 15:05.99 in Portugal on June 30 before shaving time off her top 1500m mark, now 4:06.33, in Italy less than a fortnight ago.
"It's as much as you can ask for really, to be running fast and running PBs at this time," Westcott said.
Davies now finds herself training at altitude in the Spanish area of Hoyos, following a similar path to the World Championships from 2023, before joining the athlete's village just prior to her event.
"She used that as a training base last year before Budapest and it worked really well," Westcott said.
So in terms of making an Olympic final plan reality, Westcott identified one key element.
"To be in the top eight you've got to run basically 2:45 for the last kilometre, which is why Rose has been doing 1500s and training has been geared towards building the ability to finish a 5k race very fast," he said.
"She's been doing it all year, so it's just bringing out her level of performance on the stage that matters most."
Westcott, a former Olympic marathoner, will remain home in Newcastle for the Games but Davies' parents and a few friends are heading over to support live in Paris.