Like Rebecca Adlington, Keri-anne Payne became a household name after her heroics in Beijing where she won silver in the 10m marathon swim.
"Keri-anne's plan is going to be to go out hard and fast and stay there. If that plan goes right then she is going to win it because no one will be faster than her. "
Cassie Patten
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Since then, Payne has dominated the event and despite a slight shoulder niggle earlier in the year, she is still the hot favourite for the gold medal on Thursday.
"There is incredible pressure on her," Payne's former training partner, Cassie Patten, told skysports.com. "At Beijing no one knew who Kerri-anne Payne was but she has really been in the public eye and people now expect her to win.
"She is going in as the world champion and everyone will be gunning for her; being the best means there is only one way to go and that is down."
Lead
Payne's gameplan is simple enough: go out fast, take the lead and don't relinquish it until the end. The course is slightly different from usual with six laps instead of four - and Patten reckons that could be a problem if Payne does not manage to get to the front.
"If Keri-anne is not leading then I think she may find it tough," said Patten, who won bronze in the 10K swim in Beijing.
"She swims from the front and she won't like it if she gets caught up in the pack - the turns can get a bit physical and with two more turns that usual it could be a bit dangerous for her if she is bunched up with the other girls.
"Her plan is going to be go out hard and fast and stay there. If that plan goes right then she is going to win it because no one will be faster than her.
"If that goes wrong and if for some reason she does not get a good start then I will be a bit concerned. She has done all the training but not had that many races this year so her race tactics may not be as good as usual."
Confident
One of Payne's secret weapons is her uncanny sense of direction and the ability to swim in a straight line with very little sighting, a trait that could prove the difference the difference between gold and silver.
"I am not sure if her brilliant sighting will be an advantage or a disadvantage with the shorter laps," added Patten. "I do know that she will have a lot of girls on her feet so she really needs to get that right but I am confident her sighting will be right up there."
Unlike the triathlon, the 10km swimmers will not have a choice of wearing a wetsuit if the temperature drops below a certain point and Patten believes the colder weather could be an advantage for Payne.
"We saw the men in the triathlon wearing wetsuits and that makes me think that it may be a bit nippy on Thursday. Swimmers like Italy's Grimaldi and Brazil's Poliana Okimoto could suffer badly and that will affect their performance.
"Okimoto was third in the test event (Grimaldi won, Eva Fabian of the US came second, while Payne did not swim) and said after that race that she was very cold and would have to do a lot more acclimatisation.
"Keri-anne is pretty good in the cold - she has the mind-set where she just gets on with it, so I don't see her having any problems. If she swims the way we know she can swim then she should do it. I trained with her for five years and I know what she trains like.
"She may not have the best season but she pulls it out of the bag and I know she can produce something special on Thursday."
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