That was an improvement of 14 centimetres on the 32-year-old three-time Paralympic champion and seven-time world champion’s own previous mark and a distance that would have earned him Olympic gold in the last six Games.

Rehm, unsurprisingly, said he felt "amazing" afterwards.

It was part of an outstanding sequence of jumps, the others being 8.19m, 8.46m and 7.97m, for the athlete whose ambition of following in the wake of Oscar Pistorius and competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games failed when he was unable to convince the international authorities that his prosthesis did not give him an unfair advantage.

At the other end of the day, Spain’s Rio 2016 champion Kim Lopez had got the European Championships off to a historic start as he became the first men’s F12 shot putter to to break the 17m barrier.

Lopez took gold with a world record of 17.02m, improving by 33cm the previous record set by Ukraine’s Roman Danyliuk at the Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.

Danyliuk had to settle for silver this time with 16.24m and Serbia’s Stefan Dimitrijevic won bronze, with 12.91m.

"I am really happy, I have been training a lot and this is just the result of my work", said Lopez, who took his third European gold in the event.

"I really missed the international competition.

"I feel comfortable and thankful about being in Bydgoszcz."

Lopez will now continue his preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in August.

Before Bydgoszcz 2021, his main rival Danyliuk had defeated him at the Euros in 2018 in Berlin, and the World Championships in 2019.

"This [result] is a big confidence boost for Tokyo 2020. 

"I hope to have a good result there," added the Spaniard.

Rehm’s flourish was clearly inspirational as it was followed by two European and seven Championship records.

Britain’s Columba Blango set a new continental mark of 47.90sec in the men's T20 400 metres, and Ireland’s Greta Streimikyte took nearly four seconds off her personal best to round the day off with a second European record as she ran 4min 39.27sec to win the women’s T13 1500m final.

The post-Rehm European Championship records started with 12.27 metres in the men’s F55 shot put final by Bulgaria’s Ruzhdi Ruzhdi.

Others came from Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner who clocked 17.26sec in the women’s T53 100 metres, Pierre Fairbank of France, who recorded 15.48 in the men’s T53 100m, Zubeyde Supurgeci of Turkey, who recorded 16.83sec in the women’s T54 100m final..

In field events, Frantisek Serbus of the Czech Republic, who reached 34.31 metres in the men’s F32 club throw,  Andrius Skuja of Lithuania, who recorded 47.84m in the men’s F46 javelin, and Khetag Khinchagov of Russia, who reached 6.41m in the men’s T38 long jump completed the records.

The seventh edition of the European Championships began well for the Polish hosts too - out of 11 finals in the morning session, they won three.

World record-holder Faustyna Kotlowska set a Championship record in the women’s F64 discus with a 34.58m throw.

Joanna Mazur, who clocked 5min 03.24sec in the women's T11 1500 metres, and Karolina Strawinska, who threw 19.76 metres in the women’s F55 discus were the other two early Polish winners.

Portugal’s Miguel Monteiro also broke a Championship record in the men’s F40 shot put with 10.92m.

Finland’s Marjaana Heikkinen won her third consecutive European title in the women's F34 javelin with 17.85m.

Russia also had three gold medals in the morning session.

Aleksandr Khrupin set his season-best of 11.30m in the men's F33 shot put, while Anastasiia Soloveva, running 1min 00.04sec, and Aleksandr Kostin, clocking 15:00.53, took victories in the women’s T47 400 metres and the men’s T13 5,000m respectively.