Clara Martinha

Happy birthday to Portugal’s national record holder Clara Martinha, who ran for Portugal at the European Championships fifteen days ago and at the World Indoor Championships in March.

March, Toruń. Clara took a leg of Portugal’s 4x400m at the World Indoor Championships and the quartet ran 3:31.37 — a new Portuguese national record, breaking a mark that had stood since Glasgow two years earlier. She was 19 years old. In August she was back in the national vest at the European Championships in Birmingham, where the Portuguese 4x400m went even quicker outdoors, 3:31.24. Two senior global and continental championships in one year, both in the event where four people either trust each other completely or do not finish.

Individually she has had just as good a season. Her 54.17 indoors at Pombal in January is a personal best, she was on the podium at the national indoor championships in Braga in an all-Sporting sweep, and in July at Seixal she won the Portuguese U23 400m title in 54.81 — and then went out and won the 4x400m as well, with a championship record.

The 400m is a sprint, and it is the cruellest one. There is no hiding inside it, no tactical lap, nowhere to put the pain except through it. Clara has been doing that for Portugal at world championship level since she was a teenager, out of Amiais de Baixo in the Alcanena hills, in the green and white of Sporting Clube de Portugal. And she shares a birthday with her twin sister Lúcia, who runs for the same club.

Muitos parabéns, Clara! Hoje é dia de festa, cantam as nossas almas — para a Clara, uma salva de palmas! Muitas felicidades, muita saúde e muitos anos de vida. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇵🇹