Dafni Georgiou

Happy birthday to Cyprus’s sprint hurdler Dafni Georgiou, the two-time defending national champion, who has moved countries this year to keep getting better.

In June, at the GSP Stadium in Strovolos, Dafni won the Cypriot 100m hurdles title in 13.39 for the second year running, having taken the 2025 title in Limassol in 13.28. Two weeks earlier she had been in Volos finishing fourth at the Balkan Championships in 13.41, and in June she took third at the Papaflessia Challenger in Kalamata, where the Cypriot federation’s own report described her simply as improved.

Her record has been built on the biggest stages a small country gets. She ran the 60m hurdles at the **World Indoor Championships in Glasgow**. She won a **bronze medal in the 4x100m at the Mediterranean Games in Oran**. At the Games of the Small States of Europe in Andorra last May she took **silver over the 100m hurdles** and was part of the Cypriot 4x100m that won gold, and she won the same GSSE hurdles title outright back in Schaan. She has a personal best of 13.09, which puts her among the two fastest hurdlers Cyprus has produced in her era.

Before all of that came Idaho. Dafni went from the American Academy in Larnaca to **Boise State University**, spent four years in the Mountain West, and in her final season broke the Boise State 100m hurdles school record — a mark that had stood for fourteen years. She was Mountain West Indoor Track Athlete of the Week twice in a single month, took silver at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships, and collected three Academic All-Mountain West selections along the way.

And this year she moved again, relocating to Italy for new coaching guidance. Twenty-seven, two national titles in hand, and still willing to pick up her whole training life and put it somewhere new.

Χρόνια πολλά, Δάφνη! Και να τα εκατοστίσεις, με υγεία, χαρά και ακόμα πιο γρήγορα εμπόδια. Σαν την Κύπρο εν έχει! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇨🇾