11th September 2013 11:00
When the clock is turned back almost six months to Göteborg and the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, who could have known the woman accepting bronze would become the gold medallist at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow?
But gold it was for the Ukrainian who proved just what the seven-event discipline is all about to shine in Russia - she was consistent from the start and it brought her glory.
A triumph that she carries with her to Talence on Saturday and Sunday for the 37th Decastar Meeting.
It is the last competition in the IAAF Combined Events Challenge and Melnychenko leads the series from Poland's Karolina Tyminska and Germany's Claudia Rath.
All three will face each other in a strong end to the season in a field that also includes Eliska Klucinova, who was seventh in Moscow as Melynchenko won gold, Rath was fourth and Tyminska was ninth.
But the arrival of this new star from the Ukraine came with a superb performance in the Luzhniki Stadium where she showed that you do not need to win a single event to still be the best.
Melnychenko's record makes interesting reading when all the different groups are combined together. She was second in the 100m hurdles, fifth in the high jump, seventh in the shot put, fourth in the 200m, third in the long jump, 16th in the javelin, and seventh in the 800m.
No individual successes but it still brought her 6586 points, a personal best display just to add spice to her glory, and that place at the top of the podium.
She won by 56 points from Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton who will be in Talence and no doubt looking for a semblance of revenge this weekend.
But as Melnychenko proved in Moscow, she is tough cookie and this time will start with a champion’s tag to her name as she looks to end her glorious 2013 in style.