Two months ago she was in hospital but now, with a powerful turn of foot, Great Britain’s Lynsey Sharp has shown just the type of form she is in to defend her 800m title at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
Her performance at the British Championships in Birmingham, which doubled as the trials for the Europeans, saw Sharp win in 2:01.40 from Alison Leonard, in 2:01.83, and Jenny Meadows, in 2:02.18.
But it has been some journey following a tendon problem.
'I am enjoying being back racing, especially after the last 12 months having had surgery twice and I was in hospital on an IV drip in April,' said Sharp.
She has run quicker this year, being seventh in the European Athletics rankings with 2:00.09, lists which are led by Russia’s Yekaterina Poistogova with 1:58.55, but it was all about winning on Sunday.
If her rivals were watching, they will be aware of the way she controlled this race, which can be so key when it comes to the chase for medals this summer.
Dwain Chambers, now 36, booked himself a spot in the 100m team for Zurich as he won his fifth national title in a row with victory in 10.12, his best time of the season, while William Sharman looked impressive again in the 110m hurdles, where he triumphed in a wind-assisted 13.18.
It was some Sunday, too, for young multi-event star Katarina Johnson-Thompson who equalled her long jump personal best as she won with 6.81m.
It is seven years since Germany’s Rico Freimuth won decathlon bronze at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Hengelo, and now he has put himself among the medal contenders for the European Athletics Championships.
At the Erdgas Meeting in Ratingen, Freimuth scored an impressive 8356 points, a qualifying mark for Zurich and a performance which puts him second on the European Athletics rankings, just 105 behind his teammate Kai Kazmirek.
With a personal best in the 110m hurdles of 13.78 and discus of 49.61m on the second day, he progressed to beat Kevin Mayer, of France, who was second with 8323 and fellow German Arthur Abele, who was third with 8139.
In the heptathlon, Germany’s Lilli Schwarzkopf, the Olympic silver medallist, moved to sixth on the European rankings as she won with 6426, beating teammate Claudia Rath, with 6314, and Poland’s Karolina Tyminska, with 6266.
The city square in Berdychiv, Ukraine, was the venue for the Viktor Lonskyy Memorial meeting – a special high jump event – and it saw Oksana Okuneva win the women’s competition with a personal best of 1.98m. Yuriy Krimarenko, the 2005 World champion, won the men’s competition with 2.28m.
Staying with the high jump, in Bucharest, Romania’s Daniela Stanciu produced a personal best of 1.93m at a national meeting and there was a brilliant performance from world youth champion Florentina Marincu, 18, who won the long jump with a windy 6.73m. But her legal effort of 6.71m was not only a personal best, it was also the best in the world this year by a junior.
At the javelin Carnival meeting in Pihtipudas, Finland’s Tero Pitkamaki, who threw 85.89m in Turku last week, showed his consistent form with 85.12m and Sweden’s Sofi Flinck, 18, moved to the top of the world junior rankings as she won with 58.44m. In Torun, there was a Polish junior javelin record as Marcelina Witek threw 57.31m.
At the Spanish Club Championships in Zaragoza, the women’s team of Valencia Terra i Mar maintained their amazing dominance of the competition as they won it for the 22nd time in a row while the men of Playas de Castellon took their sixth successive crown.
Even in the rain at the special Pole Vault exhibition at Trocadero Gardens near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, French star Renaud Lavillenie still cleared 5.70m. He moved onto 5.80m but missed out on his two attempts.
And away from the track, celebrations all round in Russia as double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva gave birth to a daughter on Saturday and a happy time for her coach Yevgeniy Trofimov who was 70 on Friday.
'Yelena called me in the night and said that I became 'sport grandfather' and that it was great present,' said Trofimov. He revealed she will return to the sport in the autumn.
THE WEEK AHEAD
There are 63 meetings this week. Visit our European Athletics Calendar for all the details.