As he entered the tunnel from the road to the Bird’s Nest Stadium he raised his right arm, as he reached the track, he lifted up both arms and as he made it around the home turn, into the final 100m, he started to smile.
On a morning in Beijing he will never forget, Spain’s Miguel Angel Lopez won the 20km walk at the IAAF World Championships with a stunning performance, the best of his career, to land a major title for the second summer in a row.
A year on from his glory at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, Lopez is the world champion after victory in a personal best time of 1:19:14, a win which saw him beat Chinese favourite Zhen Wang by 15 seconds with Canada’s Benjamin Thorne (1:19:57) in third.
It was a brilliant display for Lopez, who banks Spain’s first 20km walking gold medal at the world championships since Valenti Massana in Stuttgart in 1993.
And the bronze medallist from Moscow two years ago revealed how much he absorbed those glorious moments as he entered the arena.
Lopez, 27, said: “My last 200m were an incredible sensation – I remembered all those who have helped me.
“I hoped the people of Spain watched me at three in the morning. They should see this unique moment of my life.
“This is the best moment of my life.”
But it had been a tough event, with the humid conditions, and he said: “The course was difficult and complicated, plus the heat. It was a tactical race but I kept my calm.”
Lopez achieved his success with a two-fold approach: gradual progression before a powerful, telling surge for gold.
But a significant point came in the early part of the second half of the race as Japan’s Yusuke Suzuki, who in March broke the world record with his incredible 1:16:36, pulled out.
By then Lopez had moved from 10th at the 5km stage (20:13) to sixth at 10km (40:21) before being 11 seconds behind Wang (59:53) at 15km.
Then came the sucker-punch, as Lopez narrowed that gap in style, putting in a bold move for glory with 2km to go and how it worked as he broke his personal best by seven seconds - and could not stop smiling.