Laura Vila Weinberger

Happy birthday to Peru’s 400m sprinter Laura Vila Weinberger, who once walked out of a national championship with four gold medals and a silver.

That was March 2025 at the VIDENA in Lima, and it is worth listing properly: national champion over 400m in 57.24, silver over 200m, and gold in the 4x100m, the 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m. Five medals in three days, in five different events, against the best of a whole country. Her club, Regatas Lima, titled its report on the meet with a single word, Arrasamos. We swept.

She has kept going up since. In May she ran 56.97 over 400m at the national senior championships, a lifetime best set, which is the age at which one-lap runners typically stop guessing and start knowing. In between she has worn Peru’s colours at the South American Championships in Mar del Plata and at the Bolivarian Games in Lima, running relay legs at both.

That relay record is the tell. Coaches do not hand you the 4x100m, the 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m at the same championship unless they trust you in every one of them, and unless you can run a curve, take a stick and hold a position when the race is being decided. Laura is the athlete a Peruvian team sheet keeps having a place for, and she has answered every single time.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Laura! Que cumplas muchos más y que la vuelta te siga saliendo cada año más rápida. ¡Arriba Perú! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇵🇪