The biggest multi-international event ever seen in Ballarat is just over 1300 days away and one look at the list of nations on the athletics starting line from the just-concluded Birmingham Games and you can understand just what a massive event we will soon see right here in our own backyard.
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In Birmingham, 72 nations competed across the dozens of sports that were on offer across the past fortnight, but it was athletics that was the undoubted feature, with incredibly 69 of the 72 nations having at least one competitor take to the track.
While Australia will no doubt dominate the swimming in Geelong as it has for the past century at Commonwealth Games, athletics is clearly the jewel in the crown at any major event such as the Olympics or Commonwealth Games and where all the great stories are found.
Who will ever forget Kerryn McCann winning the marathon at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006, or Ballarat's very own Kathryn Mitchell finally breaking through in the javelin after years of making finals.
We don't have the Americans or the French or the Germans or even the stunningly improved Norwegians at the Commonwealth Games, but the majority of the best athletics nations will compete, Jamaica (or any of the Caribbean nations for that matter), Kenya, England, Canada and yes, the new kings of Commonwealth Games athletics, the host nation Australia.
In four years time, how many great stories will be written on the track at Mars Stadium? Will the likes of Kelsey-Lee Barber be able to defend her javelin crown? Or will Mitchell still be going around looking to add to her 2018 gold?
What about Peter Bol in the 800m? A silver medalist on the world stage now, will he be set to go one better in Ballarat?
Perhaps Stewart McSweyn, who missed these games with illness will be fit and firing, looking to topple compatriot Ollie Hoare in the 1500m? In all, a record 10 Australians could be out to defend their titles in four years time.
We might see the emergence of Ballarat's own young guns in Sam Rizzo, Cooper Sherman, Alanna Peart and Lachlan O'Keefe get a chance.
And these are just the Australian and local stories, what about the wonderful opportunities that exist for countries that don't traditionally make it to an Olympic stage?
People like Jonathan-Deiwea Detageouwa from Nauru, who made the men's shot put final, throwing a personal best of 15.41m, or Turks and Caicos Islands' Ifeanyichukwu Otuonye who jumped a season's best 7.8m to finish eighth in the long jump.
Then there are the stories of the unexpected medal winners. How many would have predicted that Trindiad and Tobago's Jareem Richards, would not only smash the games record and his personal best, breaking 20 seconds in winning the 200m? Or Scot distance legend Eilish McColgan would break through for an gold medal in the 10,000m having made countless big finals?
So get ready, Ballarat, it's going to be huge.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES COUNTRIES
Athletics: Gold - 19 countries
Australia, England, Kenya, Jamaica, Nigeria, Canada, Uganda, Scotland, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, India, South Africa, Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Pakistan, Zambia
Athletics: Silver and bronze - 13 countries
Northern Island, Sri Lanka, Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Namibia, Ghana, Bermuda, Cyprus, Fiji, Guernsey
Other Athletics countries - 37
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Belize, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Eswatini, Gibraltar, Guyana, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, St Helena, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, The Gambia, Tonga, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
69 of the 72 countries had people in athletics.
*Results based on Birmingham
