One of the great characters of European athletics will take his place at the forefront of the Italian team at next week’s European Athletics Indoor Championships – just five months shy of his 41st birthday.
But there is simply no stopping triple jumper Fabrizio Donato who is in a squad of 27 and how about one more medal to roll back the years?
It will truly be an amazing story, but just his presence alone shows the passion he still has for the sport.
Donato won gold in Turin in 2009 and how perfect that was in front of his own crowd.
Equally, how extraordinary it was too as he triumphed with his only legal jump, a fifth round leap of 17.59m after four fouls which not only brought the title but was also a national record.
And then, two years later, he returned in Paris to win silver with another national indoor mark, this time reaching 17.73m behind the 17.92m world record exploits of France’s Teddy Tamgho.
Incredibly, Donato first competed at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Ghent in 2000 where he finished sixth in the final (16.57m), the early days of a career where last summer he even made the Olympic Games in Rio but did not qualify for the final.
It is a good looking Italian squad which includes Yeman Crippa, the double SPAR European Cross Country junior gold medallist, in the 3000m and Silvano Chesani, who won high jump silver in Prague in 2015.
The strength of Türkiye has been shown at the past two major European events and that could be the case again with their big names out for more medal glory in Belgrade.
Yasemin Can was one of the stars of last summer’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam as she won the 5000m and 10,000m double before in Chia in December she took gold again in the senior women’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
She has entered the 3000m which could become a captivating duel between her and Great Britain's Laura Muir.
Türkiye also won gold in the men’s senior race in Chia with Aras Kaya and he will also run the 3000m in Belgrade alongside teammate and defending champion Ali Kaya.
And should Ali Kaya triumph at the Kombank Arena, it will be more than just a European double on the track; it will be a Belgrade double too as he won the junior race there in 2013 when the city staged the Euro Cross.
Emel Dereli will be determined to make the podium, too, again in the shot put after winning European bronze in Amsterdam last summer.
Ukraine have named a squad of 32 for the championships and they have a good number of medal hopes which include in the pentathlon Alina Shukh, the 18-year who is having an amazing season.
She has the top two scores in the world in 2017 – 4550 and 4542 – the former of which is a world under-20 record and it will be a great test for her in a field which includes Belgium’s Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam.
Ukraine could also be among the medals in the women’s 60m in the shape of Olesya Povh, the 2011 European indoor champion, who is fourth on the European rankings.