Alba Ramírez

Happy birthday to Spain’s heptathlete Alba Ramírez, who moved 400 kilometres for a coach and had it pay off inside a single indoor season.

In September 2024 Alba left Madrid for Castellón to join Manoli Alonso’s training group. Five months later she won the Spanish sub-23 pentathlon title, and a fortnight after that she went to the absolute championships, led going into the final event, and sealed the national senior title by winning the 800m. 4,102 points and a first absolute crown.

The rest of 2025 kept going in the same direction: 5,655 points in the heptathlon at Arona, 4,216 in the pentathlon at Pombal, and 8.79 over the 60m hurdles at Sabadell. Every personal best on her record comes from that year.

That is what a good decision looks like from the outside. From the inside it was a young athlete packing up her life, leaving the city she grew up in, and betting a whole season on a coach in a place she did not yet live. It worked, and it worked fast.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Alba! Que cumplas muchos más, con mucha salud y mucha alegría, y que hoy te den un tirón de orejas por cada uno de esos veintitrés años. ¡Vamos! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇪🇸