Waiting at the top of the gate in Brisbane’s BMX World Cup, Saya Sakakibara got a sense of what’s to come in Paris.

A clear favourite of the sell-out crowd, Australia’s Olympics hope did her best to lap it up as she notched back-to-back seconds to remain on top of the standings with two rounds remaining.

“It was a lot of emotion; I’ve never been in such good form coming into a home World Cup and I know I had a lot of eyes on me and really wanted to win,” she told AAP on Sunday.

She knows the number of eyes will only grow in the lead-up to the Paris Games from July.

Tweet from @SBSSportau

“This (home crowd) is probably the closest thing to the Olympics … I tried to embrace it and basically rehearse that mental side,” she said.

“I heard the cheers and thought this is such a cool life; it’s mind-blowing so many people know who I am, it’s so crazy.

“Human beings aren’t prepared for that.”

Sakakibara lamented over-shooting and then under-shooting the first jump in the final on Saturday and Sunday, Switzerland’s Zoe Claessens edging ahead at the treacherous first turn and holding on to claim both races.

Three-time Olympian Lauren Reynolds, fifth in the Tokyo final, was stopped in the semi-finals but remains on track for selection alongside Sakakibara in Paris.

Sakakibara, a 24-year-old from the Gold Coast, had won the first two World Cup rounds and her consistency in a sport with such fine margins has her primed for a medal charge in July.

But, badly concussed when crashing out of the Tokyo semi-finals, knows the sport takes no prisoners.

Her brother Kai was in a coma for eight weeks after a horrible crash in 2020 and is now targeting para-rowing at the Paralympics.

And fellow Australian Paris hope Izaac Kennedy felt the full force when, sitting clear in second in the quarter-final on Sunday, he was taken out by the falling leader on the final turn.