This could only happen to Usain Bolt. He ran like the wind, extended his individual unbeaten race record to 20 and brought exultant thousands in Zurich's Letzigrund Stadium to their feet. So why did it feel like an anti-climax?
This is the Bolt effect, all right. We have been so used to witnessing ground-breaking, almost miraculous performances from him that when his all-devouring stride goes into end-of-season, never-mind-the-record-take-the-money mode, we feel almost cheated.
And that, of course, is hardly fair on the man. He was not exactly dawdling here at the Weltklasse meeting in his first race since his wondrous Berlin treble, clocking 9.81sec for 100m, a time that only four men have ever bettered.
Yet, in a field which featured five of the starters in the world championship final in which he recorded his epic 9.58sec milestone, it just felt as if he was going through the motions, getting away to the slowest start and only rousing himself when compatriot Asafa Powell looked poised to hand him his first defeat in over a year.
But with 15 metres left, Bolt woke up and careered past Powell, who clocked 9.88sec, with American Darvis Patton third in 9.95sec.
Still, organisers will doubtless reckon he was worth every Swiss franc of his SF250,000 appearance fee. On the eve of the race, they had wheeled out a cardboard cut out of Bolt and sent it whirring down some rails at 38km per hour. Punters were invited to race it. Not even the ones on bikes could get near. Powell on castors wouldn't have either.
The Weltklasse, as always, acted as a two-hour highlight reel of all the best action from Berlin with 16 world champions on view but nothing at stake except a handsome pay-day.
But Lisa Dobriskey, who lost out by one-hundredth of a second for gold on Sunday once Spanish victor Nuria Fernandez had been disqualified for barging, enjoyed another landmark night, becoming only the fourth Briton ever to dip under four minutes for 1500m.
The Ashford miler could not quite capitalise on her swift opportunity to eke revenge over new champion Maryam Jamal, finshing third behind the Bahraini victor and American Anna Willard in a sprint down the home straight but her time of 3min 59.50sec puts her second on the British all-time list. Only Kelly Holmes has run faster. "And I had so much left," said Dobriskey, encouragingly.
Sanya Richards underlined her domination over Christine Ohuruogu, handing the Olympic champion another 400 metres trouncing while maintaining her assault on the $1 million jackpot on offer to unbeaten athletes in this year's Golden League meetings.
The American has moved serenely into a different league, here clocking a season's best 48.94sec while also teaching the world 200 metres champion Allyson Felix, runner up nearly a second adrift, that moving up to challenge her at one-lap would be a fruitless exercise.
Ohuruogu started as if she meant business from lane two but could only watch the world champion power away in the lane outside. The Londoner came home fourth in 50.41sec, one place higher than her Berlin finish, with Nicola Sanders sixth in 51.02sec.
William Sharman, who provided one of the most uplifting British stories in Berlin with his fourth-place finish in the sprint hurdles, could only finish sixth in the re-run here in 13.37sec as Jamaican Dwight Thomas beat new champion, Barbadian Ryan Brathwaite into third place with a new national record 13.16sec.
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