Red-hot Sally Pearson handed out another chilling warning to her 100m hurdles rivals with a sizzling winning time of 12.49 seconds at the Olympic track and field trials on Saturday night.

Pearson made a mockery of the wet conditions at Lakeside Stadium by clocking her fourth-fastest time – and her best on Australian soil.

It was also significantly quicker than American Dawn Harper’s gold-medal time at the 2008 Beijing Games, providing further proof – if any were needed – that the Australian is the raging favourite to win a first Olympic title in London later this year.

“Holy crap, I know I can’t swear but what can I say – it’s really fantastic and really exciting,” said the 25-year-old Pearson.

“At the same time I’ve got to keep grounded, I’ve got to keep focused on the London Olympics.

“That’s still a fair way away and there’s a lot more training to go.

“At the moment I’m in good shape and I’m loving it, I’ve just got to look after myself.”

Pearson had arrived at the track on Saturday night expecting to run fast, although she admitted there was no sense the time was going to be anything special during the race.

“When I ran it I thought ‘what is going on here?'” she said.

“I felt like I was going 10m in the air and I did not feel great at all.

“I knew I had the speed so I was trying to work off that more than anything.

“I just didn’t hit any hurdles and got through the race and at the finish line it was an amazing time.”

American Yvette Lewis had been flown to Melbourne at short notice to provide competition for Pearson, but she could only trail home in a distant second place in 13.22.