Pascal Martinot-Lagarde will have every right to feel on top of the world on Sunday morning - because that is exactly where he is.
It had been quite a winter for the French sprint hurdler and now the summer looks like it might become even more spectacular after one of the performances of his career at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene.
The Prefontaine Classic saw Martinot-Lagarde triumph with a brilliant run of 13.13 to soar to the top of the World rankings and in the process once more beat the American David Oliver, the World champion.
Martinot-Lagarde was hit by injury close to those World Championships last summer and did not make the final - ironically his brother Thomas did and finish seventh - but Pascal is the man in the ascendancy.
In Moscow he was back in fifth in his heat in 13.63 and on Saturday night in front of an American crowd, he produced a time that is just 0.01 outside of his personal best.
Jamaican Hansle Parchment was second with Oliver back in third in 13.21 with his USA teammate Ryan Wilson, who was second in Moscow, in fourth in 13.25. Interestingly, too, just over two months out from the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov, the defending 110m hurdles champion, was back in fifth in 13.29.
The winter had seen Martinot-Lagarde win silver in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships and in the Diamond League this season he has now gone from third in Doha in 13.42 and second in Shanghai in 13.26.
Oliver had won the first of those races in 13.23 but was then third in China in 13.28 as the host nation’s Wenjun Xie won in 13.23.
Put all the points together, and Martinot-Lagarde leads the Diamond Race with seven from Oliver, with six, and Xie with four.
As he heads home for the European circuit which slowly moves into full swing, the Frenchman now he wants go even quicker.
He said, speaking to AFP: 'This is a super, important victory. It was imperative that I confirm Shanghai. This is more than successful. I am already on my level of last summer.'
Martinot-Lagarde is still only 22. His one major gold medal is from the World Junior Championships in 2010 in Moncton but in the last two years he has been making inroads on the senior stage indoor, his World silver in March adding to his bronze from Istanbul in 2012 and then last year he was third at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg.
There is still a great deal of running to happen between now and Zurich which starts on August 12, but Martinot-Lagarde finds himself in a good place.
It was a good night for the French athletes in Eugene. Jimmy Vicaut did break the 9.90 barrier for the 100m, but the wind-reading of 2.7m means it will not count for record purposes but in a race won by American Justin Gatlin in 9.76, the Frenchman finished ahead of Jamaica’s Nesta Carter who was fourth in the same time as Vicaut, while in the pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie triumphed with 5.80m.