It could be one of the biggest homecomings of the 27th Olympic Games but for all their fierce loyalty, few Australians are betting on it.

At 38, Steve Monegheti is getting ready to toe the line tomorrow in the last race of this excellent festival of sport, the men's marathon championship.

And if he wins, it will provide the type of exit line, script writers labour to produce. In his time, Monegheti's qualities of endurance have fascinated crowds around the world.

Incredibly, however, he has never run a marathon in his own country. Now in his farewell appearance in international competition, he aspires to redress that omission with the biggest win of all.

"I dream of getting across the line first and hearing the cheers of fellow Australians," he said. "That is the thought which has driven me for the last year but I'm realistic enough to know that to succeed, I'm going to have to run out of my skin."

On the evidence of his last big race in the world championships in Seville 12 months ago when he was back in 29th place, the resilient Australian has little chance of getting on to the podium.

Yet, in a year in which form has fluctuated wildly, experts agree that any one of eight athletes could win the title over an undulating course which claimed many casualties in the women's championship last Sunday.

Antonio Pinto's time of two hours six minutes 36 seconds in winning the London Marathon in April, rates as the fastest of the year but there have been many times in the past when the talented Portuguese athlete, didn't deliver in major championships.

Japhet Kosgel and Simon Biwott lead the Kenyan challenge which reinforced by the Moroccan, Abdelkader El Mouaziz, is likely to ensure a heavy African presence when the race reaches its crucial stages.

Yet if Pinto gets it right on the day and the Spanish pair, Alberto Juzdado and Martin Fiz grow big on the challenge, Europe could still have a major role to play in determining the new champion.

A track and field athlete has failed an out-of-competition doping test at the Sydney Games, Olympic medical commission chief Alexandre de Merode said yesterday.

After a meeting of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, de Merode said the athlete - who had already left the Games - had failed a random test taken a few days after finishing competing.

De Merode declined to give the name of the athlete, the nationality or the event but the case is believed to involve a sportswoman who did not make a major impact at the Games.