The words on his twitter feed were ‘Direction Donetsk’ and there is only ‘one direction’ that Renaud Lavillenie wants to go this weekend.
The French Olympic pole vault champion has his sights set on making another stunning statement when he competes in one of the biggest events of the winter.
The world’s leading competitors are gathering in the Ukraine for the Samsung Pole Vault Stars meeting on Saturday which is celebrating its silver jubilee.
And in those 25 years, the lists of statistics are stunning: in Donetsk, there have been 11 world records, seven continental records, 21 national records and one world junior record.
Arguably the most significant of those worlds record at this European Athletics Indoor Permit meeting came from the man who now organisers it, Sergey Bubka.
That was back in February 1993 when he cleared 6.15m, a mark Lavillenie is edging ever close to this winter having moved into second in the all-time indoor rankings with his 6.08m in Bydgoszcz at the end of last month.
IOC Executive Board member Bubka left the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi on Thursday to fly to Donetsk for the Pole Vault Stars which could take the sport into a new era.
Lavillenie, the Olympic and European champion, has been in wonderful form and is part of a tremendous field of 14.
They include Poland’s Pawel Wojciechowski, the 2011 world champion, Luke Cutts, the new British record-holder, Greek record-holder Kostas Filippidis and Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva, who holds the South American record.
The women’s competition should be a close event as Poland's Anna Rogowska, the 2009 world champion, who is top of the world rankings with 4.76m, faces Brazil’s 2011 world champion Fabiana Murer and German record holder Silke Spiegelburg.