29th July 2013 07:24
Two performances over the weekend gave that question enough credence to say that might be the case.
One took place in London, the other was in Celje, Slovenia, as two athletes showed they are moving that hill towards a World Championship peak in the perfect fashion.
Christine Ohuruogu, 29, and Primoz Kozmus, 33, share a common theme. They both won gold at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and four years later they won silver in London.
Now, with the World Championships starting on Saturday week, they have both made dramatic climbs up the rankings lists with performances that show they mean business again.
Ohuruogu thrived once more on being on her home track in Stratford, the Olympic Stadium being the stage for last weekend’s Diamond League meeting. On Saturday, she delivered a brilliant run to win the 400m in 50.00, her quickest time of the season.
It was a victory which took to third in the European Athletics rankings, seventh in the world lists and as she said: 'A win's a win, but this is not where it ends for us and we will be doing a bit of tinkering and see where we go from there.'
Significantly behind her were the two Americans who are fifth and sixth above her in the world rankings – Natasha Hastings and Francena McCorory.
It was six years ago that Great Britain’s Ohuruogu stunned the event with her brilliant run at the World Championships in Osaka, powering through in her trademark fashion to win gold in the final strides. It was very much the same in Beijing 12 months after that.
In London, American Sanya Richards-Ross had just a bit too much for her but this time the 400m seems wide open after she failed to make the individual event in Moscow, finishing sixth in the USA trials won by Hastings – who has now been lost to Ohuruogu.
Across Europe, Kozmus was equally making great inroads.
The Olympic hammer champion from Beijing took the Slovenian national title with a season’s best throw of 79.70m. In a manner similar to Ohurougu, he went soaring up the rankings. The distance puts him fifth on the European list and sixth in the world.
Like Ohuruogu, he is also a former world champion, his gold-medal glory being in Berlin in 2009 and since then he has won bronze in Daegu. But is he progressing towards another performance which could see him take that top step on the podium?
The man he will have to beat is Hungary’s outstanding Olympic champion Krisztian Pars, who also won his country’s national title at the weekend with 80.41m. It was his sixth 80m-plus throw of the summer and he remains the favourite for gold in Moscow.
But Pars is closing in and what he has shown this weekend is that the competition is going to be arguably one of the most thrilling of field events in Moscow.
And how about this for delicious symmetry. The men’s hammer final in Russia is 8.30pm local time on Monday August 12 and 45 minutes into it, on the track the women will be called forward for the final of the 400m.
It could be a case that Pars is throwing as Ohuruogu is running and the outcome for both will be?