1st July 2013 08:37
The event is the long jump and Aleksandr Menkov is the man who could rewrite history.
He was already sitting at the top of the world rankings with 8.39m from Eugene in May before two performances - at the European Athletics Team Championships in Gateshead and the IAAF Diamond League in Birmingham - would have left his rivals wondering how they are going to beat him.
On both occasions he defied the vociferous home support for Olympic champion Greg Rutherford by setting down markers early in the competition which left the rest of the field with so much to think about.
In Gateshead, Menkov jumped 8.33m in the second round, extending that to 8.36m, a championship record, in the last round and then in Birmingham on Sunday, his 8.14m with his second effort again showed he meant business.
That took him into the lead, with his best distance of 8.27m coming in the fourth round.
As much as the rest tried, only Rutherford managed to even break the eight-metre barrier, with 8.11m from round three putting him in second place.
At 22, Menkov established himself this year as potentially the main man of the event after winning gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March with 8.31m. Again, in that competition, he jumped 8.28m in the first round to send out early signals.
But it is one thing hoping to carry that form from winter into summer and another thing, doing it. Menkov is managing the transition brilliantly.
He is one of only two Russian men at the top of the world rankings - Pyotr Trofimov in the 20km walk is the other - and now this field-eventer can turn himself into a World Championship legend.
Since the Championships began, in Helsinki in 1983, the men's long jump gold medal has, amazingly, been the domain of only five athletes.
Carl Lewis won the first two before his fellow American Mike Powell the next two and then it was Cuba's Ivan Pedroso who took the next four.
It was back to the USA by 2003 as Dwight Phillips won gold, retaining it two years later, and then Panama's Irving Saladino triumphed. But in 2009 Phillips regained the crown and won it for a fourth time in Daegu two years ago.
Menkov's short career has brought some outstanding success, with European Junior gold in 2009 in Novi Sad and European Under-23 gold in Ostrava in 2011, before he won bronze at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul.
Moscow is not far away and while he will hope he has not reached his peak yet, he is showing magnificent consistency.
In London last year, Rutherford needed 8.31m for the Olympic title; 12 months on, it is looking likely that the major championship of the summer will once again have the home crowd celebrating gold for one of their own in the long jump.