Alenka Efremova

Happy birthday to Russia’s Alyona Efremova, who was a Master of Sport in one event at sixteen and then went and became something else entirely.

Alyona came up as a race walker in Mordovia, which is the only place in Russia that sentence carries extra weight. Saransk has produced more world-class race walkers than most countries have, and she was good enough at it to be awarded the title of Master of Sport of Russia at sixteen, and to take bronze in the U20 10km walk at the Russian Team Race Walking Championships in Sochi.

Then she stopped walking and started running, and 2025 was the year it all landed at once. Personal bests at 3km, 5km, 10km, the half marathon and the marathon, in a single season. She ran 17:00.63 over 5000m and 36:01.61 over 10,000m at Cheboksary in July, 35:17.71 for 10km on the road at the Russian Championships in Kazan in August, 1:23:26 for the half at the Golden Ring in Yaroslavl in September, and then, eight days after that, 2:53:42 for the marathon at Mogilev, winning her age group. In February this year she took her 3000m to 10:13.51 in Volgograd.

A twenty-year-old with a sub-2:54 marathon and a 17:00 5000m is a genuinely unusual animal. Most distance runners spend a decade deciding which end of that range they belong at. Alyona raced from 1km on the track to 42.2km on the road inside twelve months and improved at both ends. Whatever the walking gave her — and it gives an athlete an economy of motion nothing else does — she has carried it over.

She runs for Бегущие Лисы in Saransk, studies at Mordovia State University, and coaches runners herself.

С днём рождения, Алёна! Желаю здоровья и счастья на долгие годы, и ещё много километров впереди. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇷🇺