Richard Kilty, who was not even expected to be in the team, won a sensational 60m gold for Great Britain at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot on Saturday night.
What a story it is.
Kilty, 24, was a late entry after the early favourite James Dasaolu had to pull out with injury and how he has taken his chance.
He turned his own world around in amazing fashion as he soared out of the blocks in the final to take gold with a stunning run.
Kilty took a brilliant start and held on to win in 6.49, a personal best, from American Marvin Bracy, who was second in 6.51, with Qatar’s Femi Ogunode third in 6.52.
It was closer than the time proved and when the result was announced, he looked up and could not believe it.
As a new star of European athletics was born, another, Pavel Maslak, put the gloss on his brilliant winter by winning gold in the 400m.
The Czech Republic athlete has been rewriting records at 300m and 500m so far this year, races that he was using to work towards this ultimate outcome.
And in a noisy atmosphere at the ERGO Arena, Maslak showed he is the star of this event as he added World indoor gold to his European 400m titles – indoors and out.
He triumphed in 45.24, yet another Czech record and his victory was never in doubt.
Maslak led at the end of the first lap and powered away to beat Chris Brown, of the Bahamas, who was second in 45.58 with American Kyle Clemons third in 45.74.
The women’s high jump was packed with drama, too, and what a treat for the home crowd as Poland’s Kamila Licwinko maintained her superb form to celebrate sharing gold with Russia’s Maria Kuchina, the 2011 European Junior champion.
They could not be separated at 2.00m exactly, for Licwinko a national record and the moment of her career as she increased the noise level in the arena with every jump.
Both women had first time clearances at 1.85m, 1.90m and 1.94m, with their one and only failure being at 1.97m on their first attempt before they went over at the second.
They both cleared 2.00m first time and missed out at 2.02m, but a gold is a gold, even if it is shared.
Spain’s European Indoor champion Ruth Beitia once more made the podium as she finished third on countback after also clearing 2.00m but it was not the final that Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic might have hoped for. She was sixth with 1.94m.
It was a year ago in Sweden that the home crowd stood celebrating the brilliant performance from their new 1500m star Abeba Aregawi as she stormed away to win gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg. Twelve months later, nothing has changed.
Except the fact that Aregawi, the World outdoor champion from Moscow, is now the World indoor champion from Sopot after another blistering display.
She took the bell at just over 3:29 and while she might have wanted to break four minutes, Aregawi just missed out but it was gold in a stroll as she won in 4:00.61.
Her victory was by 6.51 seconds from Ethiopia’s Axumawit Embaye with Rababe Arafi, of Morocco, third in 4:07.53.
Russia’s Yekaterina Koneva, who took silver in front of her home crowd in Moscow at last summer’s World Championships, made the step up the podium to gold in the triple jump, by just 0.01m.
And it was some victory, as the scalp she took was Ukraine’s Olha Saladukha, the European Indoor champion who is a former World champion and double gold medallist outdoors at the European Championships.
But this time it was Koneva’s day.
Koneva triumphed with 14.46m from the second round, anxiously seeing Saladukha reach 14.45m two rounds later but it was not enough for the Ukrainian as Jamaica’s Kimberly Williams finished third with 14.39m.
Greece’s Konstadinos Filippidis is the pole vault champion after a perfect day as he won on countback at 5.80m from Germany’s Malte Mohr and Jan Kudlicka, of the Czech Republic.
Filippidis did not have a failure until 5.85m which he could not clear but it did not matter as he had done enough for gold.
Russia’s World champion Aleksandr Menkov was battling with injury and finished fifth in the long jump with 8.08m as gold went to defending champion Mauro Da Silva, of Brazil, with 8.28m, from China’s Li Jinzhe with 8.23m, with Sweden’s Michel Torneus winning bronze with 8.21m.
As American Ashton Eaton retained his title in the heptathlon with 6632 points, there were two outstanding European performances behind him.
Andrei Krauchanka, of Belarus, won silver with 6303 and Belgium’s Thomas Van Der Plaetsen won bronze with 6259 and they both did so by breaking their country’s national indoor record.
Christina Schwanitz won silver for Germany in the shot put with 19.94m, her fifth round throw the closest to Valerie Adams, the double Olympic champion from New Zealand who took this crown for the third time as she won with 20.67m.
That came just after Schwanitz’s best effort, with the German always in second after she responded to Adams’ first round effort of 20.06m with 19.69m, as China’s Lijiao Gong finished third with 19.24m.
Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter battled through for bronze in the 60m hurdles in 7.86 as American Nia Ali won in 7.80 from Australia’s Olympic champion Sally Pearson, who was second in 7.85.