In the space of a week in July this year, European Athletics staged two of its most important events: the under-23 championships in Tampere followed by the Junior championships in Rieti.
And it is from these Championships that so many contenders have emerged for the male and female Rising Stars titles at the European Athlete of the Year awards night which take place in Tallinn on Saturday.
One of those is Serbia's Emir Bekric, 22, the European silver medallist who was outstanding in Tampere in the 400m hurdles as he won the event in 48.76 - a national record.
It was some achievement and within weeks, at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, he was back on the podium after finishing third with another glorious run that broke the record again.
Bekric became the first Serbian man to win a medal at an outdoor World Championships when he ran 48.05 behind Trinidad & Tobago's Jehue Gordon, who won in 47.69, and Michael Tinsley, of the USA, who was second in 47.70.
Great Britain sprinter Adam Gemili, who turned 20 only last Saturday, celebrated double success in Tampere, taking the 100m title in 10.20 and then running the anchor leg of the 4 x 100m relay as his team broke the European Under-23 and Championship record in 38.77.
Like Bekric, was the perfect example of what events such as this European Under-23 Championship can do for confidence.
A month later in Moscow, Gemili took his career to the next level when in the heats of the 200m, he ran the joint-fastest in qualifying, a personal best of 20.17, a time he then improved upon in the semi-finals when he broke the 20-second barrier, his 19.98 being the second best ever by a Briton and the eighth best by a European.
Fifth in the final was a brilliant outcome too for a sprinter who has a huge future.
It was a great summer, too, for Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, who finished as Europe's fastest 800m runner.
His best time of 1:43.76 came when he was second at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco and in Tampere, the 21-year-old triumphed in 1:45.79 before finishing seventh in the final in Moscow.
A week after Tampere, Rieti was the setting for the European Athletics Junior Championships and it was here that Türkiye’s Ali Kaya produced a brilliant double as he won the 5000m and 10,000m, in the latter setting a Championship record and a national junior record as he won in 28:31.16.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mesud Pezer is another name to look out for in the years ahead after he won the shot put with a national junior record of 20.44m, an effort which was the joint-15th best in Europe all year - no matter the age groups.
At 19, Pezer could emerge as one of the big European names on the senior stage having moved on from the 19.83m mark which brought him fifth place at last year’s IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona.
The clock can be turned even further back for contenders to the end of 2012 - after the last awards – when at the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Budapest, Norway's Henrik Ingebrigtsen won the under-23 title and Szymon Kula, of Poland, won the junior event.
But who will be the male Rising Star award winner in Tallinn?
All will be revealed at the event where Estonian Television (ETV) will have an hour-long European Athletics Awards Night programme from 19:10 local time that will be made available to European Broadcasting Union Members and also streamed live at http://otse.err.ee/etv/.