In the history of European 100m sprinting, only 10 athletes had broken 10 seconds before the weekend. We can now make that 11, as the boy became a man.
At just 20, Chijindu Ujah, of Great Britain, smashed his personal best to illustrate his phenomenal rise after winning the 100m gold at the European Junior Championships in Rieiti 11 months ago.
Then his time was 10.40m, but on Sunday in Hengelo, at the AA Drink Fanny Blankers-Koen Games, Ujah took himself into a new league as he joined an elite group.
With a run of 9.96, he finished just 0.01 behind Trinidad & Tobago’s Richard Thompson to move to eighth on the European Athletics all-time rankings and break the UK under-23 record.
But his performance came at the end of an extraordinary two days for European sprinting because of the exploits of Norway’s Jaysume Saidy Ndure in Floro the day before.
At the Norwegian Grand Prix, Ndure first ran 9.92 with an illegal wind speed of +2.3 in the heats but then with the legal +1.9 (ironically the exact reading that Ujah had in Hengelo), he won the final in 9.95.
Not only did he break his own national record of 9.99 from Lausanne in 2011 but also he moved to the joint top of the 2014 European Athletics rankings with France’s Jimmy Vicaut.
Additionally, Ndure climbed from equal-10th on those European all-time lists to a share of sixth with Vicaut, records that are led by Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu with his 9.86 when he finished second at the Olympic Games in Athens almost a decade ago.
Now, even more so, the possibility is raised that Obikwelu’s long-standing time might go at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich when the field for this final will be the quickest the event has known.
It has the potential to have seven of the top nine fastest European men with Churandy Martina, of the Netherlands, Britons James Dasaolu and Dwain Chambers, France’s Christophe Lemaitre, the champion on the last two occasions, among thosecontenders with Vicaut, Ndure and now Ujah.
Domestically, Ujah's performance in Hengelo makes him the third fastest ever Briton behind Linford Christie, with 9.87, and Dasaolu, with 9.91.
Ujah said: 'I did have a feeling this was coming.I knew what type of shape I was in when I ran 10.17sec in Loughborough three weeks ago.'
Even so, that is some step up to run 9.96.
Will Obikwelu’s record go? If this early season form is just a taste of what is to come, then it could be close. And how the man himself would love to be back in the European final.
Obikwelu is 35 but he is still among the winners as he showed on Saturday when he triumphed at the International meeting in Leiria in 10.52.
Europe’s quickest 100m men - the 11 to have broken 10 seconds
1. Francis Obikwelu (POR) 9.86 (22 Aug 2004)
2. Linford Christie (GBR) 9.87 (15 Aug 1993)
3. Churandy Martina (NED) 9.91 (5 Aug 2012)
3. James Dasaolu (GBR) 9.91 (13 Jul 2013)
5. Christophe Lemaitre 9.92 (29 Jul 2011)
6. Jimmy Vicaut (FRA) 9.95 (13 Jul 2013)
6. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (NOR) 9.95 (7 Jun 2014)
8. Chijindu Ujah (GBR) 9.96 (8 Jun 2014)
9. Dwain Chambers (GBR) 9.97 (22 Aug 1999)
10. Jason Gardener (GBR) 9.98 (2 Jul 1999)
11. Ronald Pognon (FRA) 9.99 (5 Jul 2005)