Three years ago at the Olympic Games in London, Jessica Ennis-Hill won the heptathlon in a national record; the golden girl had lived up to all expectation.
But she was not the only multi-eventer from Great Britain to achieve a domestic landmark over the two days of competition, because in 15th and with a score of 6267, Katarina Johnson-Thompson (or KJT as she is known) made an impact all of her own.
She might have finished 688 points behind Ennis-Hill but this 19-year-old had just broken her own national junior mark and talk quickly moved to the pair going head-to-head at a major event in the years to come.
This weekend in Beijing, the future becomes the present as Ennis-Hill faces 2014’s World No1 Johnson-Thompson at the IAAF World Championships.
So, what does Johnson-Thompson remember of 2012 and Ennis-Hill, who is seven years her senior.
'I was going around from event to event and I was a spectator of Jess at the time and I didn't look at my competitors as competitors,' said Johnson-Thompson.
'I was trying to concentrate on myself and my own performance. Being against Jess in 2012 I knew she was the main guide to win the medal, so nobody else scared me. I knew Jess was Jess, she's going to win, she is going to be awesome, so no one else was that intimidating.'
How the tide turns.
Injury niggles have meant Johnson-Thompson has not yet taken part in a heptathlon this summer, a year which has seen Ennis-Hill return to the sport after giving birth to her son Reggie 13 months ago.
The Olympic champion is third on the European Athletics’ rankings with 6520 after finishing fourth in Gotzis and will meet a rival in Johnson-Thompson who has already made it to the podium in 2015 by winning gold in the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague in March.
That Friday she finished with 5000 points, breaking the national record of 4965 that Ennis-Hill had set three years earlier.
It is easy to see the pattern that has developed with the successor to the crown gradually overtaking the queen of the event.
But never before have Johnson-Thompson and Ennis-Hill met on such equal terms as they will do at the Bird’s Nest Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.
Not that it will be just a two-woman show. As usual, Gotzis in May proved a major guide with the best marks of the year, as Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton won (6808) followed by Germany’s Carolin Schaffer (6547) and Netherlands’ Nadine Broersen (6531).
Johnson-Thompson made her senior mark at the last world championships in Moscow in 2013 when she was fifth (6449) just weeks after winning the European Athletics Under-23 title in Tampere (6215).
Her personal best is now 6682 and she said: 'Anyone that goes into competition, including Jess, wouldn't have entered it if she didn't want to win a medal. It's definitely a battle.
'But if Jess comes out in London 2012 form it's game over for everyone. If Brianne comes out in the same form as Gotzis and displays improvements, then she can easily take it as well. I just have to make sure I concentrate on my performances.'
Ennis-Hill is delighted her comeback year has seen her reach the point where she is going to Beijing as a medal contender. If not, she would probably have stayed at home to concentrate on next year’s defence of her Olympic crown.
And she knows the threat that Johnson-Thompson poses: 'Over the past three years she has made major improvements. Her jumping ability is incredible and she's run good times as well. She is definitely someone I have to beat.'
But Ennis-Hill believes that if she herself makes the podium, it would rank alongside her finest displays.
'It would definitely be one of my greatest achievements if I’m able to do that, because having stepped away from the sport for quite a long time, having my son, if I’m able to come back here and win a global medal would be a huge achievement,' she said.