Abigail Noruwa

Happy birthday to the Netherlands’ 400m hurdler Abigail Noruwa, who has spent her career so far learning the hardest lap in athletics in about the best company available.

Abigail runs out of AV Altis in Amersfoort, the club that developed Femke Bol, and she trains in that same group, which means her ordinary Tuesday afternoon is spent chasing the standard the rest of the world is chasing. In March she was part of the Altis quartet that won the Dutch indoor mixed 4x400m title in Apeldoorn in 3:34.61, and she already owns a Dutch U18 400m title, a Dutch U20 400m hurdles title and a senior national bronze over the hurdles.

Her 400m hurdles best of 57.19 was run at the FBK Stadium in Hengelo, the track named for Fanny Blankers-Koen, which is a fitting place for a Dutch woman to run the fastest race of her life. Indoors she has been down to 54.12 for the flat 400m, and that raw one-lap speed is exactly what the hurdles version gets built on. She has a European U20 final in Jerusalem behind her already.

Off the track she is studying sport science at Papendal, the beating heart of Dutch high performance, learning the theory in the morning and testing it on herself in the afternoon.

Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag, Abigail! Lang zal ze leven, in de gloria, hieperdepiep hoera. And congratulations to your parents too, the way it is properly done in the Netherlands. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇳🇱