Sade Maye

Happy birthday to Spain’s sprint hurdler Sade Maye, who set a personal best twice in a single day at the Spanish Indoor Championships.

That day in Valencia is the best story in her file. Sade ran 8.27 over 60m hurdles in the semi-final, which was a personal best, and then went back out a few hours later and ran 8.25 in the final of a national championship. Improving twice inside one afternoon, with a title on the line, is what hurdlers spend entire winters trying to earn the right to do. She is also a two-time Madrid regional champion over the distance, and outdoors she has run 13.63 over the ten barriers, and quicker still with a following wind.

The sprint hurdles are unforgiving in a way flat sprinting is not. There is no coasting phase, no room to relax into the middle of the race, and every stride pattern has to survive contact with the barrier. Sade has been doing it since she was five years old, which is a very long apprenticeship, and she now competes in the División de Honor for Club Atletismo Piélagos, where the whole team’s points depend on her getting it right.

She grew up in Arroyomolinos, just outside Madrid, and she is named after the singer — which is a lovely thing to know about somebody whose job is to look elegant while doing something violent.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Sade! Que cumplas muchos más, con mucha salud y mucha alegría, y que las vallas te sigan cayendo bien. ¡Vamos! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇪🇸