Ann Marii Kivikas

Happy birthday to Estonia’s Ann Marii Kivikas, the fastest woman in her country.

That is a literal statement. In July 2025 in Tampere she ran 23.04 over 200m, breaking an Estonian national record that Ksenija Balta had held since 2006, nineteen years. Ten days later at the Estonian Championships in Tallinn she ran 11.35 over 100m, winning the national title and equalling Balta’s national record from 2014. Two of Estonia’s sprint records went in a fortnight, one broken and one matched, both of them Balta’s. She was also on the Estonian quartet that ran 43.98 for a national 4x100m record at the European Team Championships in Maribor in June.

Her own words after the 200m were the best part: she said she had known for a long time she was capable of it, that finally achieving it was an amazing feeling, and that tears came to her eyes when she saw the time. Then she added that she hoped to break into the twenty-two-second club that season.

In September she made her World Championships debut in Tokyo, running 23.14 in the 200m heats. She has nine Estonian titles outdoors and six indoors. And in June this year, at the Jõhvi Athletics Evening on the Heino Lipp Stadium, she ran 11.40 over 100m, five hundredths off her own national record.

There is a story behind that June race worth telling. Late last year she left her long-time coach Tiina Torop and moved to Sweden to train under a Swedish coach, saying plainly that she wanted to try something different and that the feeling was too strong to ignore, and that there was no conflict in it at all. In February she ended that arrangement, won the national indoor 60m title the same day, and by June she was back with Torop, running within a whisker of a national record. Some athletes need to go away to find out what they had.

Palju õnne sünnipäevaks, Ann Marii! Soovin sulle õnne, tervist ja palju kordaminekuid, ja et see 22 tuleks peagi. Ann Marii, elagu! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇪🇪