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Jenna Prandini winning the USATF Outdoor 200m final in Eugene, Ore. 

From the 110m hurdles to the 5K, many young athletes have emerged as contenders to not only medal at the IAAF World Championships but possibly take home the gold over seasoned veterans in track and field. Here are the young athletes with the most potential to have break-out performances in Bejing this week:

 

Jenna Prandini (200m, 4x100m)

The 2015 NCAA 100m champion wowed the crowd at Hayward Field back in June when she took down a field of professionals in the 200m at the USATF Outdoor Championships. The winning mark of 22.20 stands as a new personal best, the seventh-fastest time run in 2015, and the first World Championship berth for the Oregon Duck. With reigning Olympic Champion Allyson Felix focusing on the 400m and World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 100m, the women’s 200m is a wide open field of possibilities, and Prandini is in the center. 

 

Omar McLeod (110m Hurdles)

Newly turned professional hurdler Omar McLeod is riding a season of momentum after winning the NCAA Indoor 60m hurdles and NCAA Outdoor 110m hurdle championships as just a sophomore at Arkansas. He went on to win the Jamaican national championships in a then-world lead and personal best mark of 12.97. From there he made the decision to sign a contract with Nike and forgo his NCAA eligibility. It was a decision that was made with athletic pursuits as well as family in mind as McLeod’s cousin was recently left parentless and he wanted to help support her. 

 

McLeod heads into the World Championships this week as the No. 2 fastest hurdler in the world behind Orlando Ortega who will not be competing in Beijing due to a change of nationality. 

 

Trayvon Bromell (100m, 4x100m)

Baylor’s young star heads into the World Championships after capturing the runner-up finish in the 100m final at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Bromell finished second to current world leader and 2005 World Champion Justin Gatlin.

WATCH: Driven: Trayvon Bromell (Episode 1)

But in the preliminary round, Bromell recorded the third-fastest wind legal time in 2015 with a victory in 9.84. The time stands just .03 seconds away from World and Olympic Champion Asafa Powell’s best recorded time in 2015. With the amount of talent Bromell posesses, the potential is limitless for the 20-year-old sprinter.  

 

Andre De Grasse (100m, 4x100m)

The NCAA Championships were turned upside down when USC’s Andre De Grasse won both the 100m and 200m at Hayward Field in June. Not only did De Grasse claim his first set of NCAA titles for the Trojans, but the marks were also wind assisted world leads that still stand today. The Canadian sprinter started running in 2012, and credits the sport as the activity that “saved him” from a troubled high school experience. Luckily for Team Canada, De Grasse has been on a tear every since, most recently with a Pan Am Championships win in the 100m and 200m, where he clocked a personal best and national record in 19.88. 

 

Steven Gardiner (400m)

The Bahamas have a 19-year-old phenom in Steven Gardiner who already owns the national record in the 400m at 44.27. The mark also stands as the fourth-fastest time run in the world in 2015. Most recently, Gardiner claimed a July 7 victory over Olympic Champion LaShawn Merritt and a win at the ATL meet against World Champion Ashton Eaton. What is even more impressive is that 2015 marks the first year Gardiner has chosen to focus solely on the open 400m. 

 

Dafne Schippers (100m, 200m)

Dafne Schippers is on a mission to bring the Netherlands another World Championships medal this year, but this time the focus is on the sprints, not the heptathlon. Schippers earned her first World Championship medal with a bronze in the heptathlon at the 2013 championships in Moscow, but chose to focus on the 100m and 200m this year in order to remain healthy and keep a nagging knee injury from acting up. This year, Schippers has made an immediate impact on the world list with the No. 8 time in the 100m and the No. 3 time in the 200m. One of her most notable performances came at Herculis Monaco when she ran 22.09 for a runner-up finish against Candyce McGrone. She followed the performance with a dominating victory at the London Diamond League meeting when she broke the national record in a new personal best of 10.92 in the 100m. 

 

Yomif Kejelcha (5000m)

At just 18 years-old, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha owns the world lead in the men’s 5K with a time of 12:58.39, which he ran against a stacked field at the Rome Diamond League meeting in June. The World Junior Champion started to turn heads early on in the season when he won a stacked men’s 5K at the Prefontaine Classic, taking down Olympic bronze medalist Edwin Soi and Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp at Hayward Field. Kejelcha’s most recent performance came at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting when he finished runner-up to Olympic Champion Mo Farah by just over a second. 

 

Shamier Little (400m Hurdles)

Texas A&M’s NCAA Champion Shamier Little will be competing on her first senior World Championship team since winning the 2014 World Junior Championships in the 400m hurdles last year. The 20-year-old currently owns the world lead with her NCAA-title winning mark of 53.74 from June. She continued her winning streak at the USATF Outdoor Championships with a victory in 53.83, and most recently at the Pan Am Championships where she earned a gold medal in 55.50. With the world lead at 20 years-old and with unlimited potential, Little is poised to make history in Beijing.