Shirley Nekhubui

Happy birthday to South Africa’s Shirley Nekhubui, an African champion currently ranked #144 in the world in the 400m and #145 in the 200m.

Shirley’s continental title sits alongside a World Athletics Relays bronze medal, a top-8 finish at the World Championships and another at the Commonwealth Games — four separate tiers of international competition, all of them producing results. She has run 51.28 for the 400m and 22.84 for the 200m, and she was part of the South African 4x400m squad that set the national record of 3:24.84. Very few sprinters are genuinely dangerous over both distances, and being ranked one single place apart in the two of them is about as clean a proof of it as the rankings can give.

Happy birthday, Shirley! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇿🇦