THE BEST OF 2009: European Youth Olympic Festival

By Nick Clowes, Sportsbeat

WHILE the world's sporting gaze is set to be fixed on Vancouver, South Africa and Delhi next year, be sure to cast your eye over events in Singapore around August time.

ON THE SCENE: Sportsbeat's Nick Clowes interviews rising sprint star Jennie Batten during the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere

The inaugural Youth Olympic Games will hardly register on the media's radar in 2010 with the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games setting the sporting agenda.

But while British success could be thin on the ground at the top level of sport, if the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere in July is anything to go by, Team GB could clean up.

After the success of the Olympic Festivals - there are also Australian and winter European versions - the IOC has taken the bold step of making it global.

The Team GB party consisting of 62 talented - but equally nervous - teenagers travelling to the Finnish city of Tampere in July for EYOF did their country proud.

A medal haul of 25 - of which ten were gold - proved that Great Britain's rookies can deliver on, what was for them, the biggest stage of the career.

There were tears and tantrums - and not just from myself trying to hit copy deadlines - but hearing God Save the Queen ring around a sparsely populated  Ratina Stadium was just as special as I'm sure it was for my colleagues in Berlin and Rome for the World Athletics and Swimming Championships.