Maritina Garefalaki

Happy monumental birthday to Greece’s sprint hurdler Maritina Garefalaki, officially recorded in competition as Maria Garefalaki, who wore the Greek vest before she left school.

At the Panhellenic U18 Championships at the Pampeloponnisiako Stadium in Patras, Garefalaki took bronze in the 100m hurdles in 14.20, finishing a hundredth of a second off silver in a final decided by fourteen hundredths from top to bottom. A national championship medal in the hurdles at sixteen is a serious result. What came next was better: she was selected for Greece in the U18 international against Cyprus at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, and she finished third there in 14.34, on the podium in a national vest.

The detail that makes it land is where she comes from. Her club is G.S. Vitsentzos Kornaros of Sitia — a town of about nine thousand people at the far eastern end of Crete, named for a Cretan Renaissance poet — and she has worn the same vest since she was twelve or thirteen years old. Getting from a small club at the end of an island to a national team is a longer road than it is from Athens, and she covered it before turning eighteen. Loyalty to the club that raised her, and a Greek vest to show for it. There is a great deal still to come.

Χρόνια πολλά, Μαριτίνα! Να ζήσεις και να τα εκατοστίσεις — με υγεία, χαρά και πολλές ακόμα διακρίσεις. Όπα! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇷