This time a year ago, Wilhem Belocian and Anita Hinriksdottir were on their way home from the European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti with gold medals in their bags. Twelve months on, they begin their pursuit of more glory on Tuesday.
Eugene in Oregon is the setting for the IAAF World Junior Championships and the first day sees two of Europe’s leading youngsters in action.
Whereas Eugene might be renowned as a place with long-distance heritage, it is the fierce sprinting ability of Belocian which could catch the eye.
In Rieti, he won the 110m hurdles in 13.18, a Championship and European Junior record having taken bronze at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona the summer before.
Now 19, he has lowered his personal best and that European record to 13.15 this year and that makes him the world No. 1 in a field of 56. He runs in lane four in heat four and his closest rival on times is Great Britain’s David Omoregie, 18, who runs in heat six and has a personal best of 13.17.
Such were the feats of Iceland’s Hinriksdottir last summer that she was named in October as the women's 2014 European Athletics Rising Star.
It was an award she won on the back of her 800m double glory which saw her triumph in Rieti a week after victory at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk.
Now 18, these World Junior Championships are an important next step. Even with her impressive personal best of 2:00.49 and season’s best - indoors - of 2:01.81, Hinriksdottir is not the fastest in the event, an honour going to Cuba’s Sahily Diago, 18, with 1:57:74.
But the Icelandic runner is among the next small group edging towards breaking the two-minute barrier and she is among the favourites for a medal.