When a major championship comes to an end, attention quickly turns to what lies ahead and often the question is posed: who will be a star of the future?
Austrian Sarah Lagger might have already answered that.
Away from all the drama in Beijing at the weekend, Lagger, 15, was making quite a name for herself in Ried at the Austrian Championships where she broke the world youth heptathlon best.
Fresh from winning a world youth silver medal in Cali in July, Lagger has now moved to the top of the girls’ all-time rankings with a brilliant performance, breaking her personal best by 40 points to score 6054 and overtake Ukrainian Alina Shukh, who set the record mark of 6039 in Kirovohrad in June.
It has been a fantastic summer for the teenager who now holds three of the top five all-time marks for her age group, having set her previous best of 6014 in Leibnitz in May before her 5992 in Cali when she finished second behind Switzerland’s Geraldine Ruckstuhl (6037).
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Lagger, who is 16 on Thursday, put together a superb programme in Ried.
She began with two personal bests, with 13.83 for the 100m hurdles and 1.79m for the high jump, followed by 13.45m for the shot put and 25.34 for the 200m.
She concluded the competition on the second day with 6.20m for the long jump, 44.50m for the javelin and 2:21.28 for the 800m.
It makes impressive reading and augurs well for the years to come, starting with next year's inaugural European Athletics Youth Championships in Tbilisi, where Lagger will surely be aiming for gold.