Robert Harting is the Olympic, World and European discus champion. After that statement, little more needs to be said about his stature in athletics, but on Thursday evening in Rome he showed that five years on from winning his first global title he remains powerful as ever.
First on in the Olympic Stadium at the IAAF Diamond League, the men’s discus once more demonstrated how strong the event is in Europe with only two of the 12 athletes from outside the continent.
But it was the man at the top whose performance will send out enough messages to his rival that he will be the man to beat as the temperature rises in the discus ring this summer.
German Harting increased his season’s best from 68.28m in Halle last month to a winning mark in Italy of 68.36m. He is still second in the 2014 world rankings led by Piotr Malachowski’s 69.28m, but the Polish star had to settle for second this time.
Harting’s best of 68.36m came from his fifth round effort but he was already dominating the contest by then with earlier throws of 66.64m, 66.61m and 66.21m as Malachowski finished second with 65.86m and Russia’s Viktor Butenko was third with 64.87m.
A man renowned for the way he celebrates his gold at major events - particularly when he removes his singlet and jumps over the hurdles - Harting is one of the most consistent performers in European athletics.
Outside of his silvers at the World Championships in Osaka in 2007 and European Athletics Championships in Barcelona in 2010, his CV is sprinkled with gold.
And the triple world champion will now be determined to now overtake Malachowkski at the top of the rankings as they both head towards Zurich and the European Athletics Championships in August.
It was a good night in the sprints for Europe, too.
Christophe Lemaitre, of France, did not break the 20-second barrier in the 200m he had talked about but he looked mightily-powerful as he surged down the home straight to run 20.24, the best time by a European this summer, as he finished second behind Panama’s Alonso Edward in 20.19 while Great Britain’s Adam Gemili ran a season’s best of 10.07 for third in the 100m won by Justin Gatlin, of the USA, in 9.91.