9th July 2013 11:41
The scene was the Darius and Girenas Stadium in Kaunas, the year was 2009, the race was the final of the women's 400m hurdles and the occasion was the European Athletics U23 Championships. As the runners hit the home turn, Perri Shakes-Drayton, of Great Britain, led from her teammate Eilidh Child and it was not long before the pair were celebrating gold and silver standing next to each other on the podium.
Four years on, the scene was the Scandinavium in Göteborg, the race was the final of the women's 400m and the occasion was the European Athletics Indoor Championships. As the runners hit the home turn, Perri Shakes-Drayton, of Great Britain, led from her teammate Eilidh Child and it was not long before the pair were celebrating gold and silver standing next to each other on the podium.
Progression to the next levels in track and field is all part of a process but these two similar stories of Shakes-Drayton and Child are perfect examples of why the events taking place in Tampere at the end of this week can work wonders as part of an athlete's future.
The Finnish city is the venue for the 9th European Athletics U23 Championships, an event which could prove to be among the most important in the career of so many - though they will not even know about it at the moment.
No-one forgets where they won their first major medals and it is no surprise that the base both Shakes-Drayton and Child created in Lithuania back in 2009 has seem them to the path they are treading now.
Shakes-Drayton, then 20, and Child, then 21, also combined to help Britain win gold in the 4x400m relay in Göteborg and the pair are among the leading runners in the 400m hurdles in the build-up to the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
Shakes-Drayton is second on the European rankings for 2013 with a time of 53.82 and Child is fourth with 54.22.
But in 2009, the European Athletics under-23s was Shakes-Drayton's first major gold and Child's first major silver, the type of success which will can give great encouragement to those competing between Thursday and Sunday in Tampere.
Eelco Sintnicolaas, of the Netherlands, now one of Europe's leading decathletes, can also earmark how importance the European Athletics U23 Championships were to him.
He was 21 when he won in Kaunas with what was then a personal best of 8112. Like Shakes-Drayton, it was the first big title of his career and like the British sprinter, he too progressed to win gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March with his triumph in the heptathlon.
The pair have more in common, too, after their successes in 2009 because the following summer, they both won medals at the European Athletics Championships. Sintnicolaas took silver and Shakes-Drayton took bronze in their events in Barcelona.
Since Kaunas, the Dutchman has increased his personal best to 8506 points with his second in Gotzis last year and at the end of last month, he helped his country stroll to victory at the European Cup Combined Events 1st League in Nottwil, Switzerland.
Little doubt that the European Athletics U23 Championships is very much a breeding ground for success.