As one season comes to an end, another is already in focus for Russian high jumper Mariya Kuchina.
She is heading for a two-week holiday before preparing for the indoors, where the main event will be the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague in March.
Kuchina will do so ready to build even further on a fabulous 2014 with an aim of breaking her indoor personal best of 2.01m which she set in Stockholm in February.
It was the best jump by a European last winter and came just over a month before she shared gold with Poland’s Kamila Licwinko at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot.
From there, Kuchina moved to a summer where she won the Diamond Race as well as the Continental Cup and took silver at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
And it was her performance at the championships, where she jumped 1.99m as Spain’s Ruth Beitia retained her title with 2.01m, that proved one of the most significant of the whole year.
Kuchina, speaking to national media, said: 'I was satisfied even with silver medal at European championships in Zurich. Of course, everybody wants to win at major events but advancement is impossible without failures.
'Victory in the Diamond League race is just the bonus for a successful season. That was unexpected.
'But technical stability and huge competition experience are the most important of my achievements in 2014.'
She will begin her countdown to the indoor season when she resumes her preparations in the middle of October and it is no surprise what a year she has had.
Kuchina has made the progression to the senior stage in magnificent fashion in a career where, since she started competing in major events, she has regularly been on the podium, from finishing second at the World Youth Championships in Brixen in 2009 to winning gold at the European Junior Championships in Tallinn in 2011.
Prague, the main track and field event of next winter, now awaits for an athlete who, at only 21, could become one of the stars of the high jump for the next decade and beyond.