Maimuna Jallow

Happy birthday to The Gambia’s sprinter Maimuna Jallow, the Gambian 4x100m record holder, an African Championships relay bronze medallist and an Islamic Games relay gold medallist. That is only the part of her career that happened before the run she has been on since.

In a single season at Cloud County Community College in Kansas, Maimuna won six NJCAA national titles: the 60m, 200m and 4x400m indoors, then the 100m, 200m and 4x400m outdoors. She was named NJCAA National Women’s Track Athlete of the Year for it. Her 7.19 over 60m is an NJCAA record, her 22.86 over 200m stands as a Gambian national record, and in May she ran 10.98 over 100m.

In January she signed with LSU. A sprinter from a country that sends very few athletes onto stages this size, by way of a junior college in rural Kansas, walking into one of the most decorated sprint programmes in American athletics. Nobody built that pipeline for her. She made it herself, one national title at a time.

Happy birthday, Maimuna! Progress, peace and prosperity, and a very fast year ahead. The whole Gambia should know your name. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇲