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Glasgow to determine swimming's alpha male

Both James Magnussen and Cameron McEvoy have played the underdog card but the Glasgow Games will determine just who is the true sprint king of Australian swimming.

"We need to find out," Australian coach Jacco Verhaeren said on the eve of the six-day Commonwealth Games swimming program, starting on Thursday.

"It's think it's great we have the two of them. It's very special.

"It's not up to me to say who is the best one - that will be decided after the race."

The two fastest men in the world will be teammates in Friday's 4x100m freestyle relay before going head to head in the individual event from Saturday.

Rising Queenslander McEvoy, 20, caused a boilover when he beat Magnussen to the national 100m freestyle title in Brisbane in April.

However 23-year-old Magnussen is the two-time world champion, the fastest ever in a textile suit and still arguably the most feared man in world swimming.

While McEvoy is seriously threatening to take over the mantle as Australia's alpha male in the pool heading towards the 2016 Olympics, Magnussen's coach Brant Best believes the rivalry could be the best thing to have happened his charge.

"A lot of the time our guys travel internationally to get world class competition. James has got it in the lane next to him," Best told AAP.

"It's very hard to do it alone. So having that in the back of your head, knowing there's a bloke that's doing doing a very, very good job an very talented, there's nothing like it."

While Glasgow is a stepping stone to Magnussen's ultimate goal of Olympic redemption in two years time, Best said the New South Welshman could not afford to hold anything back in the next week.

"He'll be having a really good, hot crack at this," Best said.

"He has to because Cam's that good .

"He (Magnussen) loves to race. He loves to represent his country and it's good competition. There'll be no holding back."