The bell didn't ring for Hagos Gebrhiwet in Lausanne in 2019 - at least, not the one his legs were anticipating.
In that race, the Ethiopian surged as though it was the final lap, ripped away from the pack and raised his arms in a fleeting, jubilant celebration - only to realise with horror that there was another 400m to run.
The scene was human; a world-class athlete counting one lap too few, the line between triumph and farce laid bare on the tartan. And yet, as so often with distance running, the mistakes of one race become the foundations of something bigger.
Five years later, at Oslo's Bislett Stadium, Gebrhiwet produced an answer stamped in steel. He tore through the 5000m with a final lap of almost unimaginable ferocity - 54.99 seconds - and crossed the line in 12:36.73, the second-fastest time in history and an Ethiopian record. It was a performance that erased memory slips and replaced them with something more significant: belonging in the company of legends.
That company has been earned, having spent more than a decade at the very top. Gebrhiwet, now 31, has reached the final at every single World Championships that he's made the start line for, an unbroken run that makes Tokyo his 10th in a row, remarkable longevity in Ethiopia's unforgiving hierarchy.
Two medals - silver in Moscow in 2013 and bronze in Beijing in 2015 - remain the highlights of that sequence, testament to both his persistence and his place among the sport's elite.
Distance running is rarely generous. It demands brilliance and patience, the ability to withstand the grind while new names arrive each season. Gebrhiwet has already lived through both roles: the prodigy who won world U20 cross-country gold, and the survivor who has collected Olympic bronze and, in 2023, a road 5km world title.
Missing the Olympic Games here in 2021 still stings, so this return to Tokyo is a chance at closure. Four years ago, he watched as medals were awarded on the track he now treads again. For an athlete with his résumé, that absence lingers.
This time he comes back chasing the moment that slipped away. "I'm happy to finally race on this track on the global stage and I expect a fast final on Sunday," he said after advancing through the 5000m heats at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
To remain relevant in Ethiopia is itself an achievement. Every year teenagers emerge from the highlands, each touted as the next Kenenisa Bekele or Haile Gebrselassie. Most shine briefly before fading. Gebrhiwet was once one of them, but more than a decade later he is still unsettling the world's best.
His style explains much: efficient, arms tucked, head tilted, conserving energy until the last twist of the screw, whether running on the highlands or racing in his familiar Asics shoes. Lausanne was the exception that proved the rule, more human than damning.
The question in Tokyo is not whether he belongs, but whether he can finally land the gold that has eluded him. Championship 5000m finals are often messy, tactical, disrupted by sudden bursts of pace and coloured by rivals with sharp finishes. Yet few combine Gebrhiwet's experience and current form.
"The last final was a fast one so I don't expect tactics," he said. "I would like to run fast."
Whatever happens, his legacy will stretch beyond medals: it will be the persistence of his presence. Athletics careers are rarely neat; they are arcs where triumph and misstep coexist.