Anna Kareva

Happy birthday to Russia’s Anna Kareva, a St Petersburg 400m runner who came home from the national U20 championships with her first national medal and the fastest race of her life.

At the Russian U20 Championships in Kazan in late June, Anna ran 55.73 in the heats of the 400m, a personal best, and made the final. The following day she was part of the St Petersburg 4x400m squad that took bronze in 3:44.20. She carries the Russian classification of Candidate Master of Sport, and she is coached by M. M. Anisimova at the St Petersburg School of Higher Sporting Mastery.

The interesting thing about Anna is that the 400m is not where she started. At fifteen she was contesting the 60m and 200m at the St Petersburg U18 indoor championships. In January 2024 she won the city U18 800m title. Somewhere between those two points she and her coach worked out that the answer was the distance in the middle, and the personal bests started arriving almost immediately.

Athletes lose entire careers to being in the wrong event. It happens quietly, it is nobody’s fault, and it usually only becomes obvious in hindsight. Finding the right one at eighteen, with a coach who was paying enough attention to move her twice, is the sort of luck that only ever happens to people who were doing the work anyway. Five weeks after that Kazan personal best, she turns nineteen with the whole 400m still ahead of her.

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