Danielle Shaw

Happy birthday to Australia’s sprint hurdler Danielle Shaw, who is running the fastest times of her career and collecting national medals for them.

Danielle has medalled at four Australian championships in three years. Bronze over the 100m hurdles in 2024, silver in 2025 in Perth in 12.90, bronze over the 60m hurdles at the inaugural Australian Short Track Championships in February 2026, and bronze again over the 100m hurdles at the Australian Championships in Sydney in April in 13.09, in a final won by Michelle Jenneke. Her 60m hurdles best of 8.11 was set at that February short-track championship. It is the quickest she has ever run.

She has been at this a long time and at a high level throughout. As a teenager she made the semi-finals at the World Youth Championships and again at the World U20 Championships, finishing eleventh in the world and then twelfth, over the same barriers she is clearing now with more power behind them.

The sprint hurdles reward accumulated knowledge more than almost any other sprint event. The barriers do not move, the distance between them does not change, and an athlete who has run a thousand of them knows things about her own rhythm that cannot be taught in a season. Danielle is coached by Peter Benifer, came through Wesley College in Melbourne, and does her strength work at ACE Performance, whose own account of working with her is worth repeating: she did not come to them injured, she came because she wanted an edge.

Happy birthday, Danielle! Four national medals in three years and a lifetime best this February. Good on ya, and here is to the next one. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇦🇺