The best young athletes from nearly 200 countries will soon be on their way to Eugene for the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, which begin in exactly one week’s time on 22 July.

With just the winners of the three heats guaranteed a place in Sunday’s final, and only three time qualifiers, there was little room for error for the leading contenders – and no luxury of easing the foot off the gas.

Ukraine’s Bogdan Bondarenko and Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova were named as the 2013 European Athletes of the Year at the European Athletics Awards Night in Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday (12).

French hurdler Wilhem Belocian provided the individual highlight of the 2013 European Athletics Junior Championships, staged in the Italian town of Rieti, whose four days of action came to an end on Sunday (21).

Anita Hinriksdottir was front page news all across Iceland on Monday after she became her country’s first global champion in athletics following her 800m win at the 2013 World Youth Championships on the final day in Donetsk on Sunday.

Anita Hinriksdottir of Iceland set a championship record of 2:01.13 to take the girls’ 800m title here in Donetsk after a brilliant run in this afternoon’s final, taking her country’s first ever gold medal at a global championships.

Iceland has never won a medal in the 14-year history of the IAAF World Youth Championships, nor a global title in the sport, but Anita Hinriksdottir is hoping to change that statistic in the 800m this Sunday (14).

Some of the best head-to-heads at the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships will happen in the girls’ events in Donetsk, with tight battles set to take place in the sprints, horizontal jumps and Hammer Throw.