Dahlia Corp

Happy monumental birthday to Great Britain’s high jumper Dahlia Corp, who is already a national champion.

July, Bedford. Dahlia went to the England Athletics U20 Championships and won it, clearing 1.72m for the title. She was seventeen years old, beating a field of under-20s. A few weeks earlier she had taken silver at the English Schools Championships in Birmingham for Hertfordshire, clearing 1.75m, a height that equalled the senior women’s club record at Dacorum AC.

1.75m is where she now lives. She has cleared it three separate times this year, indoors at Sheffield in February and outdoors in June at Birmingham, where her club called it the standout result of the day.

The high jump gives up nothing cheaply. It is one attempt, one approach, one moment where you either commit fully or the bar comes down, repeated until you fail. It rewards nerve as much as spring, and it keeps paying out well into an athlete’s twenties, which means everything Dahlia has done so far she has done in the earliest part of it.

She jumps for @dacorumacofficial in Hemel Hempstead, coached by Rob Wright at @titan360athletics. Eighteen today, with the England U20 title already sitting on the shelf.

Happy birthday, Dahlia, and many happy returns! Here’s to a year of high bars and clean approaches. Hip hip hooray! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇧