ALISTAIR Brownlee will be looking to put down a marker for next year's Olympic Games in Sunday's World Series race in Brazil.

The event is being run over the same course in Rio de Janeiro that will be used next summer when the Bramhope ace will be defending the title he won at London in 2012.

The men’s start list is jammed packed with star potential, which will make for some electrifying entertainment on the race Although he isn’t the highest world-ranked man this season, Brownlee doesn’t race to lose.

He will also be hoping that history repeats itself as he is the only person that has won a test event, as well as the Olympic Games, a feat he achieved in London.

His younger brother Jonny, the bronze medal winner in 2012, will miss Rio due to injury, leaving his older brother to fend off a feisty Spanish team that occupies the top three in the world rankings.

Among the Spanish cavalry are Javier Gomez, Mario Mola and Fernando Alarza. Gomez heads the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings. One of the most consistent athletes ever to hit ITU racing, he won the silver medal in the 2012 and finished fourth in the 2008 Beijing Games.

While Gomez and Brownlee are strong in every discipline, Mola often suffers a deficit out of the swim. The waves and warm water temperatures at Copacabana Beach present even more of a challenge for the rising Spaniard to make the lead group out of the water, which could be crucial to success before hitting the hilly and technical bike course.

Along with Gomez and Brownlee, expert swimmers such as Richard Varga, Henri Schoeman, brothers Dmitry Polyanskiy and Igor Polyanskiy, Dorian Coninx, and Vincent Luis are expected to head up the 75-man field out of the one-lap ocean swim.

The Rio bike course is like no other. It’s technical, it’s narrow, and it’s hilly. A course that carouses along the Copacabana before turning up into narrow neighbourhood roads. If that lead group gets out of the water with a sizeable gap, all of the men are strong enough on the bike to keep the chase at bay.

The 10k run can be a game changer. Brownlee is a strong runner and holds the record for the fastest run time in an Olympic Games, which was the 29:07 he achieved while winning his gold medal in 2012.

Mola and South African Richard Murray are strong runners while Vincent Luis, David Hauss, Mola and Gomez have the speed to give the race a thrilling finish.