Mark your calendars! There is just one month to go until the next major event on the European Athletics calendar - the Banska Bystrica European Athletics U18 Championships from 18-21 July.
The European Athletics U18 Championships will take place at the SNP Stadium Dukla - on a track which was installed by European Athletics’ partner Conica in 2021 - and will be streamed live in its entirety through the European Athletics website.
This will be the fourth edition of the championships and will provide us with a first glimpse of some future senior champions at European or even world and Olympic level.
Three gold medallists at the recent Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships - Keely Hodgkinson, Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Yaroslava Mahuchikh - have all won European U18 titles in their careers.
But who could potentially follow in their footsteps next month?
Looking ahead to Banska Bystrica…
Despite being one of the youngest athletes set to compete, one of the likely stars of the championships is Italian long jumper Daniele Inzoli who set a world age-15 best of 7.90m in Savona earlier this season.
Could Inzoli - who will still be 15 on the day of his competition - possibly follow in the footsteps of European silver medallist Mattia Furlani and keep the U18 long jump title in Italian hands?
And after a record-breaking Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships where hosts Italy won 11 gold medals, the next generation of Italian athletes will be suitably inspired by their senior counterparts to try and top the medal table in Banska Bystrica.
Other excellent Italian prospects include Elisa Valensin who clocked 23.15 for 200m at the Rome Sprint Festival at the Stadio dei Marmi - one of the warm-up events for the 2024 European Athletics Championships - and Kyan Escalona who leads the 2024 European U18 110m hurdles (91.4cm) list with 13.45.
There will be keen interest in Great Britain’s Phoebe Gill if she chooses to compete at the European Athletics U18 Championships. The precocious 17-year-old ran a European U18 800m best of 1:57.86 in Belfast and leads the 2024 world U18 list by an astonishing five seconds.
But if Gill opts to prioritise the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - should she qualify - her teammate Shakira King looks likely to extend Great Britain’s excellent tradition in the 800m at the championships.
King - who celebrates her 16th birthday four days before the start of the championships on 18 July - is ranked second globally at U18 level with a lifetime best 2:02.87.
One of the most experienced athletes due to compete is Estonia’s Miia Ott who was part of her country’s 4x100m team at the 2024 World Relays and at the European Athletics Championships. But the 17-year-old will be looking to leave her mark on the individual 100m after reaching the 100m final at last year’s European Athletics U20 Championships.
European U20 bronze medallist Alexandra Stefania Uta is another athlete who already boasts tangible championship experience but there are fitness doubts about the 16-year-old who pulled up injured before the first hurdle in the 400m hurdles heats at the European Athletics Championships.
A potential title for Thiam?
Another familiar name to be competing in Banska Bystrica is Nafy Thiam. While no relation to the reigning world, Olympic and European heptathlon champion, Nafy Thiam leads the 2024 European U18 list in the 3kg shot put with 18.43m and could follow her namesake onto the top step of the podium next month.
Thiam won shot put gold as part of Team Belgium at the European Youth Olympic Festival which were held in Maribor, Slovenia last year.
Hosts Slovakia will also have medal prospects across the programme. Watch out in particular for Laura Frlickova who is currently second on the 2024 European U18 100m hurdles list with 13.38 and 16-year-old Lenka Gymerska who competed for Slovakia in the 400m at last year’s European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem.
Slovakia has won two bronze medals in the short history of the European Athletics U18 Championships. Their first medal came courtesy of Gabriela Gajanova who won bronze in the 800m at the inaugural championships in Tbilisi in 2016.
Gajanova recently graduated to senior silver at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships behind Keely Hodgkinson who won her first major title with gold six years prior at the 2018 European Athletics U18 Championships.
Steven Mills for European Athletics