It was a weekend of brilliant world leads - and a world youth record - for European athletes.
German long jumper Sosthene Moguenara, the European indoor silver medallist, thrived in the superb conditions in Weinheim on Saturday to leap 7.16m (+1.6), a fifth round effort which was 12 centimetres further than she had ever gone before and the best in the world for more than three years.
Ninth at the last European Athletics Championships in Zurich, and not even a finallist at last summer’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing, Moguenara has found the perfect form to take her towards Amsterdam and Rio.
Sosthene Moguenara 7.16m - WL Long Jump#TracknFieldJunkie... https://t.co/HQ23Exrens
— Track N Field Junkie (@TnFjunkie) May 29, 2016
Not since American Brittney Reese's 7.25m in 2013 has a woman jumped this far and the signs were there that something special might happen as she reached 7.01m (0.0) in the previous round in a competition where she beat fellow Germans Alexandra Wester 7.00m (+3.3, legal 6.78m -0.4) and Melanie Bauschke 6.90m (+2.8, legal 6.68m +1.6).
The first night of the Prefontaine Classic brought a superb display from Great Britain’s Mo Farah who put down a marker for the championships ahead when he won the 10,000m in the third quickest time of his career.
The Olympic and double world and European champion triumphed in Eugene in 26:53.71 and with the run came the trademark powerful surge in the home straight as he overtook Kenyan William Malel Sitonik, who was second (26:54.66) with Ethiopian Tamirat Tola (26:57.33) in third.
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Farah’s best two times of his career have also come at this meeting, with his British record of 26:46.57 in 2011 before his 26:50.97 12 months ago.
Lisa Gunnarsson is still only 16 but she has created quite a name for herself.
In Pezenas on Saturday, Gunnarsson broke the world under-18 pole vault record of 4.47m which her fellow Swede Angelica Bengtsson set in 2010.
Gunnarsson cleared a superb 4.50m, a performance which puts her joint seventh on the European rankings’ senior lists.
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On Friday in Dessau, Germany’s Christoph Harting - the brother of Olympic and European champion Robert - produced a personal best discus throw of 68.06m to move to the top of the world rankings.
He would have done well to enjoy the moment, because it was not going to last long.
At 26, he is five years younger than his famous sibling who is one of the greatest discus throwers in history.
Christoph's last-round throw broke his personal best of 67.93m as he beat Poland’s world champion Piotr Malachowski (66.52m).
But incredibly the world lead lasted only a day.
On Saturday in Warsaw, at the inaugural National Team Championships, Malachowski took over at the top with 68.15m.
Harting, though, was victorious again on Sunday in Potsdam when he won at the Berlin Championships with 63.22m.
The second day of the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday saw victory for France’s Renaud Lavillenie as he triumphed in the pole vault in windy conditions with 5.81m while Gotzis staged its annual Hypo-meeting.
As Canadians Damian Warner won the decathlon with 8523 points and Brianne Theisen-Eaton took the heptathlon with 6765, Europeans fared well.
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France’s European silver medallist Kevin Mayer was not too far behind in the decathlon in second (8446) with Kai Kazmirek, of Germany, in third (8318).
In the heptathlon, Laura Ikauniece-Admidina broke her Latvian record with a score of 6622 to finish second in the heptathlon as Germany’s Carolin Schafer was third with a personal best of 6557.
Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam (6491) was fourth and European indoor pentathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, of Great Britain, who was second overnight, finished sixth (6304).
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In the decathlon, the top seven finishers all achieved the Olympic qualifying standard of 8100 while in the heptathlon, the top nine women secured their Rio mark of 6200.
There are 81 events across Europe this week, including the European 10,000m Cup in Mersin on Sunday. For full information, go to http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar.