Jakob Ingebrigsten wins the 5000m at the European Championships. Photo / Getty Images
As I walked out of the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham after the outstanding final IAAF Diamond meeting I heard two British Athletics supporters sadly reflect that summer had ended.
I turned and said mine is about to start and I return enthused by what I have seen.
The last fortnight has been track and field heaven for lovers of the sport. On TV we had full coverage of the European Championships in Berlin followed by the aforementioned Diamond League.
The European Championships provided athletics of the highest quality presented superbly on television. The British team had an outstanding championships with their best ever medal haul of 18 including 7 gold to top the medal table. My colleague Richard Drabczynski would also have been pleased with Poland's showing and the German hosts also had a championships to remember.
The final two days provided among the best athletics viewing I have ever seen. The pole vault had two still competing at 6m with the young Swede Armand Duplantis winning with a huge personal best, firmly the vaulter of the future.
Britain won both sprint relays but double sprint winner Dina Asher- Smith had to dig deep bringing her team from fourth to the title on the anchor leg. The Germans and Poles dominated the throws with a German one-two in the javelin and a Polish double in the shot and hammer.
My Scottish family celebrated the victory of local hero Laura Muir in the 1500m applauding her brave front running effort.
The big story of the final two days could perhaps have been titled "Brothers in Arms".
The Ingebrigtsen brothers Jakob and Henrik taking first and second respectively in the 5000m. What was remarkable is that Jakob is only 17 and that one day earlier he had won the 1500m (3:38.10) with a mature tactical performance. I phoned 16-year-old Liam Back reminding him of the challenges ahead.
The Borlee brothers went one better with three siblings, Dylan, Jonathan and Kevin bringing the Belgians to the 4x400m title.
The Diamond League in Birmingham was the final qualifying round to gather points for an invitation to the two final meets in Brussels and Zuruch.
The three hour meeting was outstandingly presented with world class athletes on show- track and field at its best. I only wish our young athletes could see such events on a regular basis.
The four New Zealanders competing had mixed fortunes. Eliza McCartney injured herself in the vault to limp off the runway after her second vault. The swirling wind meant that the winning vault was only 4.62m more than 30 centimetres below McCatney's best. It was a world class field and injury and difficult conditions proved frustrating for all.
Angie Petty was very close to her best finishing 7th in the 1000m won by Laura Muir (the European 1500m winner). Nick Willis finished 5th in the Elmsley Carr Mile (3:56.77) with an impressive final sprint. If only he had been closer to the pace he could have added his name to the long list of world class winners in an event that has been run more than 50 times.
Andreos Hoffman (Germany ) threw the javelin out close to 90m to beat his German compatriot Thomas Rohler who a week earlier had taken the Europeans.
Dina Asher-Smith returning from her European triumphs lost out in the 200m to Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo with Dafne Schippers (Netherlands ) in third in what was a who's who of women's sprinting.
The men did not disappoint either in the final 100m race of a great afternoon.
The world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman returned to the city where he won the title beating the Brit Reece Prescod in a photo finish. Both ran 9.92 (a best for Prescod) with world leader Noah Lyles in third, all world class performances into a slight head wind.
My thoughts this weekend will be with our Whanganui quartet (Liam Back, Zach Bellamy, Sarah Lambert and Rebecca Baker) who will be on the Sunshine Coast running for New Zealand Schools. I will hopefully return at the start of September to hear about their efforts and enthused ready for our own summer action.