Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen insists he will only get stronger heading into next year's world championships in Tokyo, saying his training times are still improving.
The Norwegian, still only 23, roared onto the scene when winning the 1500/5 000m double at the 2018 European championships in Berlin as a fresh-faced 18-year-old.
Since then, he has twice repeated that double on the continental stage, while also winning both events at the Tokyo Olympics.
He won the 5 000m gold at this summer's Paris Games after finishing fourth in the 1500m. He was also beaten into silver in the shorter event at the last two world championships while winning 5 000m golds.
Despite that relative disappoinment, Ingebrigtsen said Thursday that he was confident that he was continuing to improve.
Asked if he would be in better shape in a couple of years' time, Ingebrigtsen was adamant: "Definitely!
"Eventually we thought it would stop improving, and that the threshold pace – the pace that we can run for around an hour... would kind of hit a roof, not improve.
"But even if it's just marginal, it's still improving. You can always be stronger."
There was no rocket science behind the training process, Ingebrigtsen said ahead of Diamond League finals in Brussels.
"It's just the same training, doing it simple, running a lot of mileage at the lower intensity, and doing it year after year," he said.
"Obviously I'm still improving. So of course, I believe I can improve and be a lot stronger next year and the year after that.
"At the same time, it's important to not have major setbacks because it's crucial to have that stimulation week after week, month after month, year after year, for a longer period of time.
"This year, I think I was able to recover from the winter (when he was recovering from an achilles injury) because I've had so many years prior to that. But still it's not a good thing.
"So I'm very much looking forward to racing tomorrow, but still getting back to my work for the next couple of months and the winter, to be a lot better prepared going into 2025."
'A GOOD START'
Ingebrigtsen, who ran a 2 000m world record at last year's Brussels meet, will be up against two Americans who recently managed to beat him.
Cole Hocker won Olympic gold in Paris, while Yared Nuguse defeated Ingebrigtsen at last week's Diamond League meet in Zurich.
"I feel good and I'm looking forward to fighting against a strong field tomorrow," said Ingebrigtsen.
Apart from the rarely-run 2 000m, Ingebrigtsen also holds world records in the indoor 1500m and last month smashed the 3 000m mark.
But the long-standing world best in the 1500m, the 3:26.00 run by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj back in 1998, has proved elusive, and not just for the Norwegian.
"The world record has been standing for so long," he said. "It's a really strong record. It's not impossible to beat it, but very difficult.
"If there's something we know about world records it's that they're not very easy. Of course, I would love to get as many shots at running as fast as I possibly can.
"But still, it's about being realistic.
"Statistically, it's been impossible for many, many years. But there's always a possibility, but most likely not tomorrow."
Looking further ahead, Ingebrigtsen remained in bullish form.
"It's possible to break every record," he opined. "There are world records for a reason, because it's the best performance by an athlete in history.
"But we've seen it, not only this year, but the last couple years, that all the different records are beatable."
Ingebrigtsen added: "You can't just wake up and jump in the race and break a world record. Everything needs to be aligned.
"At my best, and if I'm able to get a chance in many different events, I think I have a good shot of beating many of them, but it takes a lot of time and there's still a lot of work to be done to get there and have the opportunity in all the different ones.
"Luckily, I've been able to beat a couple, not too many attempts, so it's a good start."