The World Junior Championships, which starts in Beijing today, will be the springboard for many young athletes vying for a place to compete in the 2008 Olympics.

The events of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for 16-19 year old athletes were inaugurated in Athens in 1986 and are held bi-yearly. A total of 1,451 athletes will take part in this week's event.
 
Women's pole vault world recorder holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia, Swedish women's heptathlon athlete Carolina Kluft and Ethiopian long distance runner Meseret Defar are among those starring in the juniors and who've had success at the 2004 Athens Olympics or World Championships.

Last summer 16 athletes, who became World Championships gold medallists in Helsinki, had been finalists at the World Juniors. Today in Beijing another crop of athletes from 182 countries and regions are looking forward to following in those illustrious footsteps.

China with a 79-member squad has five athletes who won world youth titles last year, stepping up an age group and looking for success in front of a home audience. However, the Beijing Olympics are likely to come around too soon in their careers for them to make the China 2008 team.

The athlete grabbing the most attention is high jumper Huang Haiqiang, who many are predicting will eventually surpass the long-standing Asian and former world record, held by his compatriot Zhu Jianhua.

China's best results in a world junior championships came in 1992 with the young athletes bringing back eight gold medals.

"We will be looking ahead a couple of years to the Olympic Games particularly since past evidence suggests that two years are long enough for a world junior champion to turn into an Olympic champion," said Lamine Diack, president of IAAF.

"I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how well the Chinese juniors perform because that nation has a tradition of producing excellent young talents such as the 110 hurdles Olympic champion and world record holder Liu Xiang, who finished fourth at the World Junior Championships in 2000.

"The IAAF World Junior Championships have been a crucial barometer for the health of our sport because without top level competition opportunities from a young age it's extremely difficult for athletes to learn how to cope with the extreme pressure of World Championships in athletics or Olympic Games," added Lamine.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily August 15, 2006)