Ottaynis Febres

Happy birthday to Venezuela’s discus thrower Ottaynis Febres, who set a national record two days after her last birthday.

On 18 August 2025 at the Pan American Junior Games in Asunción, Ottaynis threw 54.40m and took the silver medal. It was a Venezuelan U20 national record, it was the first time she had ever passed 54 metres, and it came forty-eight hours after she turned nineteen. She lost the gold by two centimetres. Her series that day was 51.60, then the 54.40 on her second throw, then 50.29 and 51.78. Her own words afterwards: they had beaten the personal best from March, but the silver smelled like gold right until the final throw.

Her bio still says 54.40. It is out of date. On 31 May this year in Lima she threw **54.74m** and took silver at the Ibero-American Championships, a senior championship, at nineteen. Before that came the South American U20 title in Peru, one of only two medals Venezuela won at that entire championship. Then eighth at the World U20 Championships in Lima, the best-placed South American in the field. Then bronze at the Bolivarian Games. She has broken the Venezuelan U20 discus record four separate times.

Here is the part that should stop you. At sixteen, with **one year** of athletics training behind her, she was throwing 44 metres. She is now at 54.74. Eleven metres in about three years, in an event where most throwers fight for one.

The discus is the most technical throw there is and the least watched. It is a rotation, a balance problem and a release angle, all inside about a second and a half, and it punishes an athlete who gets any of the three slightly wrong. Ottaynis is, and she is already the best in her country at it.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Ottaynis! Que hoy te canten Ay, qué noche tan preciosa como se debe, y que ese disco siga volando cada vez más lejos. ¡Épale! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇻🇪