The prospect is growing of a classic men's pole vault competition at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague in March.
France's Renaud Lavillenie is the defending champion and the 2014 male European Athlete of the Year.
But he could be set to face the man who last beat him at a major event - Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe, the world champion.
Holzdeppe was forced to miss this summer after sustaining a back injury during the indoor season.
But his return and training programme is on course with the organisers confirming that he will compete at the Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting on 31 January, just over a month away from the championships in the Czech Republic's capital from 6-8 March.
Holzdeppe, 25, is training in South Africa, and if his early competitions go well, with no reoccurrence of the problem, a showdown with Lavillenie could be something quite special in Prague.
A brilliant youngster, Holzdeppe was the world junior champion in Bydgoszcz in 2008 before 12 months later winning gold at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Kaunas.
In 2012 he made his big impression on the senior stage with bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki and then at the Olympic Games in London - on both occasions as the brilliant Lavillenie took gold.
And 12 months later Kaiserslautern-born Holzdeppe really turned the tides at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow when he won gold, beating Lavillenie on countback.
The deciding height was 5.89m, which Holzdeppe cleared first time and Frenchman Lavillenie went over at the third attempt. When they both failed in their three vaults at 5.96m, the title was heading to Germany.
Lavillenie, 28, who will be chasing a fourth successive crown at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, came back in style, though, in 2014 which has been one of the greatest years of his life.
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In Donetsk in February he broke Sergey Bubka's 21-year-old world record, in the Ukrainian's home city and with him watching, as he cleared 6.16m before, in Zurich, winning a third consecutive gold medal at the European Athletics Championships.
If both men are on form in Prague, the pole vault will be an event that you will not be able to take your eyes off of.