One of the guiding questions that shadowed the overview of the five rising Junior men to watch in 2024 was which of them might repeat the antics of David Cantero del Campo.
In his first year out of the Junior ranks (in 2023), the Spanish youngster powered to a maiden World Cup win. To prove it was no fluke, he added another World Cup medal – a silver in Tangier – a month later.
Naturally, not all rising Juniors can have the same impact as Cantero. As a result, in this article we will survey all of the five rising Junior men to watch from a year ago and see how they fared. In doing so, we will be able to generate a more reasonable picture for what might be expected from the 2024 crop.
Cantero was without question the star of the group last season. When we flagged him as one to watch a year ago, we noted that based “on his short career thus far, Cantero del Campo could be something special”. We concluded by assuming European Cup medals and the World U23 Championships would form the crux of his ambitions. Instead he won in Valencia, finished 2nd in Tangier and took 5th place at another World Cup (in Huatulco).
Although he only placed 12th at the World U23 Championships, he did so with the fastest run split of the field. For good measure, Cantero won the Spanish title too. It was a remarkable season and he will likely be even better this year.
Toby Powers, the silver medallist from the World Junior Championships in 2022, was another name raised last year. The Australian athlete started his campaign with a solid block of Oceania Cups. He finished 18th in Wanaka, 16th in Taupo and 27th in Devonport, which included the Oceania Sprint Championships.
However, injury struck and dented his season. He eventually came back at the end of the year and finished 19th at the Hong Kong Asia Cup. Notably, that represented his first Senior race outside of Oceania. While solid, though, his year would have given him a fair amount of frustration.
Injury also hit Léo Fernandez, the 2022 European Junior champion. In the end, we did not see a lot of him on the international scene as he had a stop-start year.
His 7th place at the European Cup in Ceuta stood as his best result. Coming at the end of the season, it offers hope that a strong 2024 may be in store. However Fernandez also suffered DNFs in Holten and Yenisehir. Prior to that, he finished 22nd in Olsztyn and 26th in Caorle.
Like Powers and several of the rising Junior women of last year, injuries compromised his first year out of the Junior class.
Artūrs Liepa had a mixed bag. He won the Latvian title and finished 2nd at the Baltic Championships but other than that had a best finish of 44th at European Games. He did not finish at the World U23 Championships in Pontevedra and had a day to forget at the European Championships.
Meanwhile, Ben Cumberland mainly raced on the British domestic circuit. In his two international appearances, he finished 46th in Holten and 58th in Olsztyn. Seeing as Britain has a deep pool of talent from which to choose, he will likely focus on cementing his status within the British ranks before turning his attentions to the international scene.
All things considered, Cantero really was an outlier among the rising Juniors of 2023, among both the men and women. The main lesson is actually that the opposite of his experience can be expected. Injuries and setbacks often creep up and as such it is imperative to not heap too much pressure on such young athletes. More than anything, the first year out of the Junior ranks can be seen as a transitional one for most.
Still, there will always be the special few that succeed at the first time of asking, whether in winning a World Cup like Cantero or in winning the World U23 Championships at the first ask as Dorian Coninx, Laura Lindemann and Sophia Saller did.
The rising Juniors of 2024 should thus not plan for everything to go to plan, but success is clearly possible and they should believe they can reach it all the same.
