Over the past two winters, Richard Kilty has been the king of the sprints but he has been determined to make his mark outdoors.
It seems he is on his way because this morning he finds himself as the fastest man in Europe over 100m this year.
Great Britain’s Kilty was competing at the 10th edition of the international meeting in Gavardo on Sunday when he brought his personal best time down by 0.01 as he won in 10.09.
His tweet afterwards said it all.
After surprising the field by winning the 60m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot in 2014, Kilty repeated his golden glory in Prague when he took the title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March.
He was also part of the British 4x100m relay quartet which triumphed at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August and has talked in the past of his desire to smash 10-seconds for the 100m. He is that small bit closer - and now will look to go even quicker.
It was a landmark race for the host nation as second behind Kilty was Filippo Tortu, 16, whose time of 10.33 was an Italian under-17 record.
Diamond League
The second Diamond League meeting of the season in Shanghai had European athletes at the forefront.
In the women’s pole vault, it was a big occasion for Greece’s Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou who re-established her position as No 1 in her country by winning with a national record and world lead of 4.73m. The 2012 European bronze medallist beat teammate Ekaterina Stefanidi, who was second in Zurich, and here finished with 4.58m.
Two athletes from the same country also battled for first in the men’s discus which saw Poland’s Piotr Malachowski win with 64.65m ahead of Robert Urbanek with 64.47m.
Russia’s long jump world champion Aleksandr Menkov won with 8.27m while in the shot put, Germany’s European champion Christina Schwanitz produced a European lead of 19.94m having returned after surgery as she finished second behind China’s Gong Lijiao with 20.23m.
Montgeron
In Montgeron, France’s Garfield Darien ran a European lead of 13.20 in the 110m hurdles, his performance coming in the heats before he won the final in 13.42 ahead of Thomas Martinot-Lagarde in 13.68.
Constantinos Stathelakos took his Cypriot hammer record to 75.32m from 73.86m at the annual throws meeting in Tripoli while on the road, Bart van Nunen, in 1:04:35, and Stefanie Bouma, in 1:18:11, triumphed at the Dutch half-Marathon Championships in Leiden.
Ennis-Hill
Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill, still unsure where she is going to compete in her first heptathlon since returning to the sport after becoming a mum, was back in action ahead of her decision about Gotzis at the end of the month. She threw 43.88m in the javelin and reached 6.16m in the long jump at the Loughborough International and may announce news of her plans this week.
And as the Olympic champion was topping the bill in England on Sunday, a new sensation in the event was emerging in Leibnitz.
Lagger
At an open regional championship, Austria’s Sarah Lagger, 15, scored 6014 points for a stunning all-time world youth best. Her performance broke the old heptathlon mark of 5991 set by Russia’s Tatyana Chernova in 2005.
There are 68 meetings in Europe this week. For full details, go to www.european-athletics.org/calendar