When the gun fired for the final of the men's 60m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March, who could have known the significance that race would carry throughout the year?
Jimmy Vicaut, of France, beat James Dasaolu, of Great Britain, both crossing the line in 6.48. By the summer, when their distance increased to 100m, both were making headlines again for breaking the magical 10 seconds.
It was proof of how Europe's men - whoever they were - accepted the challenge in front of them to turn 2013 into a period of glorious success.
It is why there are so many contenders in the longest of short lists for the male title of European Athlete of the Year, one of the four honours at the awards ceremony in Tallinn on Saturday night.
Europe's men had a fabulous summer at the IAAF World Championships and on the Diamond League circuit, taking their exploits to new levels.
Mo Farah, of Britain, is seeking the European Athlete award for a third successive time and his credentials are as strong as ever.
The double Olympic champion made his own history as he put himself alongside Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele when he won 5000m and 10,000m gold in Moscow.
The pair are the only two athletes to have won the long-distance track double at the Olympics and World Championships, but that was not all from Farah.
A few weeks before Moscow, he finished second in Monaco in the 1500m in 3:28:81, breaking the European record time of 3:28.95 which Spain's Fermin Cacho had set on 1997 and smashing the British record of 3:29.67 that Steve Cram had run even further back, in 1985.
As Farah was tearing up the track this summer, Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko was causing quite a stir in the high jump.
He was the man who brought gasps of excitement from the crowd in both London and Moscow when he raised the bar to 2.47m in a bid to break the world record of 2.45m.
For now Cuban Javier Sotomayor's mark remains safe as Bondarenko did not clear it.
All in good time because this year Bondarenko was just supreme, capping a series of fabulous performances with victory at the World Championships in a period where his jump of 2.41m in Lausanne - repeated in Moscow - took him to joint-third on the world all-time list.
The World Championships was an event where Europe's men had success in all areas.
Take Ireland's Robert Heffernan, who was just outstanding as he won the 50km walk in 3:37:56; and how about Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe beating France's Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie to gold in the pole vault?
Lavillenie went on to win the Diamond race for the discipline, as did Estonia's Gerd Kanter in the discus, while it was some year for Russian long jumper Aleksandr Menkov.
No disputing who is the best in his event after he won in Göteborg with 8.31m and then in Moscow with 8.56m, which had the added spice of being a national record. Just for good measure, Menkov also took the Diamond Race title.
A similar story with Vitezslav Veseley, of the Czech Republic, in the javelin, who landed the brilliant achievement of being the World champion with a throw of 87.17m and winning the Diamond Race.
Poland's Pawel Fajdek was outstanding as he won the hammer in Moscow while there was double German success with David Storl taking the shot put title and Robert Harting triumphant in the discus.
And then there was French triple jumper Teddy Tamgho, who came back from injury to not only win gold but leap 18.04m, the first man to hit the 18 metre distance since Jonathan Edwards in 1998.
Edwards' world record of 18.29m will now be in clearer focus for Tamgho who was congratulated by the Briton just moments after his success in Moscow.
Sportsmanship at its best; European glory at its finest.
But who will be crowned the winner among them all this Saturday evening?
To find out, Estonian Television (ETV) will have an hour-long European Athletics Awards Night programme from 19:10 local time that will be made available to European Broadcasting Union Members and also streamed live at http://otse.err.ee/etv/.