Sprint King Usain Bolt's retirement will mark the end of an era in athletics but no momentous beginning is expected for the Indians when they compete in the IAAF World Championships beginning here on Friday.
The 25 Indian athletes taking part in the showpiece event are not expected to make much of an impact, barring an outside chance of a medal from world junior record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.
Everything depends on this 19-year-old Haryana athlete's performance on August 10 and 12 — qualification round and finals — on whether India manages to put an end to the medal drought since 2003.
For a country which has taken part in every championships since the first one in 1983, legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George's bronze in Paris 2003 has been the lone medal at this global stage.
The historic topping of the medal tally by the Indian athletes in the recent Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar is laudable but the success at the continental event will have no bearing at this global showpiece event.
A 16-member Indian team had taken part in Beijing in 2015 and returned with three final round appearances through Inderjeet Singh (men's shot put), Vikas Gowda (men's discus throw) and lalita Babar (women's heptathlon).
This time it a whole new bunch of athletes, except for women's 20km race walker Khushbir Kaur and relay runners M R Poovamma, Jisna Mathew and Anu Raghavan.
Sadly with just a medal to boast of at the World Championships in India's athletics history, reaching the final round was counted as an achievement.
There will be no Indian in action on the opening day tomorrow with Asian champion Govindan lakshmana not competing in 1000m final. He has not qualified for the event despite winning a gold in Bhubaneswar.
The first Indian event will be heptathlon 100m hurdles on August 5, in which Swapana Barman will represent the country, followed by men's 400m heats to be competed by Muhammed Anas.
The best bet for India is young Neeraj, whose season's best of 85.63m puts him at 14th in the IAAF rankings. He has a personal best of 86.48m, which he did while setting a junior world record last year. However, he needs to improve at least a couple of meters more than his personal best to be in contention for a medal.
Two javelin throwers have crossed the 90m mark this year, while eight athletes have gone beyond 87.64m, the mark which the bronze winner in Beijing had thrown.
The Indian has three 85m throws this season and his two Diamond league appearances in Paris and Monaca last month -- where he had finished fifth and seventh respectively -- should have boosted his confidence after rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world.