Jake Wightman clutched his gold medal and left others to pinch themselves.
He had struck the jackpot with the run of his dreams and his dad on the microphone providing commentary for the stadium. An hour had passed and it had still to sink in.
“My mum crying was the first time I realised what a big deal this is," said the Nottingham-born Scot. "When I’m retired, fat and enjoying life a little bit, I’ll look back on this and feel very proud that I did everything I could to get to this point.”
Up against all three medallists from the Olympic 1500 metres in which he trailed in 10th a year ago, Wightman was not expected to trouble the podium.
Yet he hit them with the fastest time the world has seen all year - three minutes 29.23 seconds - and was clear it had been no fluke, no one-in-a-million set of circumstances conspiring in his favour.
“This is something I’ve had to work hard for because I never feel this sport, this job, is all fun and games,” he said.
“I’ve sacrificed a lot for it, the whole of my early 20s not doing stuff with friends. It is all worth it for moments like this.”
Wightman became Britain’s first winner of the event since Steve Cram in 1983 and revealed it was down to packing power into his legs in response to his Tokyo blow out.
The post mortem identified that while he had finishing speed, he needed to build strength to deliver him to the right position to take advantage of it.
So he took himself to Lanark to compete in a cross-country championship on a muddy former horse race course.
Then to the Ribble Valley 10k, on to a 5k Parkrun and indoors to test himself over 3,000m: different challenges, very different conditions.
“I’m not a negative person but I felt pretty scarred by Tokyo,” he said. “That haunted me for a while. There were a lot of gaps I realised needed filling.
“So by the time I got here I felt I had the potential to do something like this. I felt good through the rounds and in the final had enough strength to attack that last 200.”
He thought of his dad, Geoff, and how often they had pondered what it would be like for one to win and the other to call it.
“He can be a bit of a robot on the mic sometimes,” laughed Wightman jnr. “Some people say robot, some say professional. I hope he broke down today.
“Seb [Coe] will say the same thing, it makes it so much more important when someone puts as much effort in as my dad has.
“I hope he can equally share this. I hope he is soaking it in and I hope he is proud because he has put as much effort in as I do.”
Fourth through the first three laps, Wightman held firm while the Kenyans, in particular, blew themselves out. On to the final circuit and at the 200m mark he struck.
“I thought ‘screw this, I’m going to give it a go’," he said. "If I end up finishing fourth, at least I gave it my all. But I didn’t, I held on.
"Whatever happens in the rest of my career, I’m a world champion. Not many people get to say that."
