Thomas Rohler was only four years old when his home town became the setting for the greatest javelin throw in history, but now it can stake a claim to the Diamond Race winner along with its links to the world record.
Rohler, from Jena in Germany, turned around the surprise of failing to make an impact at the European Athletics Championships two weeks in Zurich to win the event back at the Letzigrund Stadium on Thursday in the penultimate IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season.
And it was not just one night of superb throwing from Rohler, it was the best of his career as he produced an effort of 87.63m at the Weltklasse to triumph in the competition itself and overall in the series to win the $40,000 first prize.
His distance might be short of the world record but nothing may ever reach the incredible 98.48m that Jan Zelezny, of the Czech Republic, threw in Jena on May 25 1996.
Rohler - who turned five just over three months after Zelezny's magic moment - had showed the type of form he was in when he triumphed at the Diamond League in Glasgow in July with 86.99m.
But from that personal best came a new one in just round one on Thursday with the 87.63m which saw him beat Trinidad & Tobago’s Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, who was second with a national record of 85.77m, and Tero Pitkamaki, of Finland, who was third with 85.12m.
Pitkamaki’s teammate Antti Ruuskanen had taken gold with a European lead of 88.01m at the European Athletics Championships but this time he was back in sixth with 83.85m.
After his success in Glasgow, it looked like Rohler would be in medal contention at the championships, but in the final he had a best of just 70.31m.
If that was not his night, his return to the venue definitely was as he delivered a fine series of throws, with his opener, the second best in Europe this year, being followed by 81.57m, 83.03m, 81.25m, 84.38m and 84.73m.
Europe celebrated a second Diamond Race winner on the night as Russian Mariya Kuchina took the high jump in what has become a year to remember for her too.
Kuchina had been the silver medallist at the European Athletics Championships with 1.99m as Spain’s Ruth Beitia took the title with 2.01m.
But now it was all about the Russian who equalled her personal best of 2.00m to triumph and win the overall Diamond Race prize as she banked the eight points on offer on the evening by going over at the winning height first time to beat Croatian Ana Simic with 1.98m and Beitia, with 1.93m.
The level of consistency that Kuchina has shown throughout 2014 has been superb.
In March she shared gold at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot with Poland’s Kamila Licwinko as the pair could not be separated at 2.00m, and when the summer season arrived, the Russian maintained this form, building towards two fabulous performances in Zurich in the space of two weeks.