One of the big surprises of the Glasgow Diamond League at the weekend was the emergence of a medal threat to the established order of things in the javelin when Thomas Röhler stepped up for his final throw.
“I had just been pushed down to fourth by Tero Pitkamaki and was not happy about it,” admitted the young German.
The result? A personal best by over two metres of 86.99m and victory for the man from Jena.
It was only a year ago that Röhler, still only 22, had managed to hang bronze around his neck at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tampere.
Yet again this intermediate championship had provided the vital stepping stone from youthful promise to a serious senior contender for major honours.
But how had he managed to move from fourth to first and improve so dramatically in Glasgow?
“I decided to take a risk and extended my run-up by one metre. It was raining heavily but that did not bother me. But when I saw 86.99 come up on the board it was a surprise for me too.”
Just as important for Röhler was the fact that he had all the favourites for the European title behind him.
In second place was defending European champion, Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic while former world champion, Finland’s Pitkamaki was third and fellow German Andreas Hofmann, winner at the European Athletics Team Championships Super League in Braunschweig, was fourth.
But Röhler is not getting carried away: “Top six would please me,” he says.
At the same time, he knows anything can happen as he proved in Glasgow: “The most important thing is that you get in three good throws at the start. That way you qualify easily.
“Then in the final anything is possible as we saw in Glasgow. All of these guys are beatable.”
For the last four years Röhler has been steadily progressing from an 18-year-old who threw 71.31m to the heights he has now attained.
Last year the sport and business student even survived a change of coach because his former coach left Jena to join Potsdam which is not a step Röhler was prepared to make.
“I said from the start that I would not make the switch to Potsdam. I have got everything I need in Jena. I get on well with Harro Schwuchow, (coach), we discuss things and work well together, discussing and changing things as we see fit. It seems to work well.”
In Jena, Röhler is following in the footsteps of greats who have gone before. 1988 Olympic champion Petra Felke Meier was from Jena and triple Olympic champion, Jan Zelezny, set one of his world records in the Jena stadium.
This is a lot to live up to but Röhler hardly seems phased by it, regarding it more as an inspiration.
After two fifth places in Eugene and Oslo this summer, Röhler travelled to Paris where he notched up a third place and personal best 84.74m, as it happens a perfect warm-up for Glasgow.
“The difference between throwing 84 and 87 is really very slight, more nuances. But after Paris I thought ‘Ok, so now you know how it feels to throw a long way.
“A couple of things had gone well in training and in Glasgow I tried them out. It was difficult for all of us at the start. We were all throwing too high.”
But then it all came together in the final round and Röhler was on his way. Next stop Zurich.