At first there might have been a touch of disappointment from the home fans in Stockholm for the Globen Galan on Wednesday night when Sweden’s Andreas Kramer crossed the line in eighth in the 800m as Poland’s Adam Kszczot won in a world-leading 1:45.63.
But when the clock showed his time of 1:47.85, history had been made.
Kramer had broken the European Athletics junior indoor 800m record, overtaking a mark that had topped the list for more than 17 years.
Andreas Kramer just ran a Swedish juniorrecord on the 800m! 1.47.85 pic.twitter.com/xLYKLIMxnQ
— Arctic APPROACH (@ArcticAPPROACH) February 17, 2016
Like Kramer, Dutchman Bram Som was also competing in front of his own crowd when he ran 1:48.39 in The Hague in January 1999.
He was 18 years and 337 days old and Kramer is 18 years and 310 days.
And what a glorious platform it became for Brom, who went on to win gold at the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in 2006.
Now Kramer, who runs for Savedalens AIK, can build on this brilliant performance, having shown outstanding progress this year.
It was in Stockholm 12 months ago that he also achieved a personal best of 1:49.01 but then failed to progress past the heats at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.
With this record behind him, Kramer could become one of the top young stars in the summer and may now look to make his mark outdoors at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.
And who knows...Som might even be in the Olympic Stadium watching him.