From every edition of the IAAF World Championships comes a breakthrough performer who can change the course of an event. Take 1993 in Stuttgart, and the emergence of Haile Gebrselassie. Or 1997 in Athens, and the first sight of Maurice Greene.

The name poised to come out of Edmonton is Andre Bucher. For the last two months the Swiss athlete has burned through 800 metre running on the Grand Prix circuit, not just seeing off the best in the world but also clocking the fastest time in nearly two years. Everything indicates that his first major title lies in wait.

Just over a week ago, in Monaco, the 800 metre field assembled was not just worthy of its Golden League status but was practically a World Championship test run. Bucher hit the front at halfway and came home unchallenged in one minute 42.90 seconds - a Swiss record. He had done similar in Rome, Lausanne and Paris.

"Now I have positive pressure for the world championships," he said after Monaco. "I'm not worrying about my opponents, though I know they are preparing well too. More than the time here I was happy about the way I ran."

At 24, Bucher is no stranger to the world stage. Those close to the event had tipped him as an outsider for the Olympic title last year, and he seemed on course until Italy's Andrea Longo barged him off the track approaching the final bend. With his form rocked, Bucher ended up fifth and Longo was disqualified. Germany's Nils Schumann was the surprise winner.

Going into Edmonton, Schumann's form is suspect and the biggest threat, the young Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy, has turned down selection fearing an early career burn-out. Defending champion Wilson Kipketer of Denmark is more injury-prone than ever, and now that Bucher has perfected his front-running style, the rest of the world will be chasing for silver.

"Bucher has got two things going for him," says Daniel Caulfield, recent Irish champion who also takes on the 800 metres in Edmonton.

"The first thing is his strength. He is one of the few 800 metre runners these days where you see a 5,000 metres best also listed. He used to run cross country and steeplechase as well, so he has this great base of strength.

"The other thing is his 400 metre speed. It's not Borzakovskiy type stuff, but it's relatively quick, somewhere in the low 46 seconds. But the fact that he's done all that distance work is the big thing.

"When I was looking to improve this winter I realised I was in the same boat, because I've done some 10ks and things like that. At one stage I thought they were all 400 metre runners moved up and the days of Seb Coe were gone, but he's definitely part of the old distance-running school." Caulfield also saw Bucher up close when they met in the European Cup last month, a rare occasion when the field was still assembled on the last lap. The two athletes actually got entangled, but that just revealed another side of Bucher. "I tried to pass him at 200 metres to go and he pushed me off the track. But he is a very friendly guy, and that's great to see. He was apologising afterwards but I would have sent myself flying as well.

"And you hear nothing but praise for him. I was talking to him in Lisbon at the World Indoors and I told him how bad he looked in his heat. And he just laughed. He'd be interested in how you were doing and he's certainly not full of himself. I was happy to see that."

In a recent interview in a Swiss magazine he was asked about his experience in last year's Olympic final, and did it bear on his mind. From now on, he said, there would be no more taking chances. The final in Edmonton should roll home in around 1.42. "Well I can't see him running it any other way," Caufield says. "When he knows he is the class of the field, why would he take a chance on running 1.44 and leaving it for a close finish?

"He'll run his race and if he gets beaten he can still be a happy man. So I see the gun going off in that final and he's controlling it from then on.

"That's not an easy thing to do over 800 metres, but right now he is probably the only person who can run a personal best on his own. Now that he's improved his speed over the years, he realises that he can sustain that for two laps because of his strength." It has become a strange sight to see Europeans dominate a middle distance event, but in this case the Kenyans seemed to have burnt themselves out.

For a couple of years now they've run the distance at suicidal pace and too often died on the homestretch. Right now all their energies seem to go into the longer distances, which has brought a welcome breath of fresh air to world athletics.