Emma Wofor

Happy birthday to Great Britain’s sprint hurdler Emma Nwofor, who has earned vests for two major championships inside a single month this summer.

Emma was selected for Team England at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and then for Great Britain at the European Championships in Birmingham, and she got there on the back of the best season of her career. In March she ran 8.04 over 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Torun, a personal best on the biggest indoor stage there is. In April she took her outdoor 100m hurdles best to 12.86 in Gainesville. She finished second at the UK Championships. Three career-best building blocks and two championship selections, all inside five months.

The company she keeps now tells its own story. She races for Thames Valley Harriers and is coached by Linford Christie. Her route there ran through two continents: Brunel University in London, then Ohio State on a full scholarship as a graduate student in sports management. She won a Big Ten indoor 60m hurdles title and All-America honours in both the hurdles and the pentathlon, and still holds the Buckeyes’ school pentathlon record. She was a British champion in the heptathlon before she narrowed her focus to the hurdles.

None of it was the plan. She grew up doing netball, basketball, gymnastics and performing arts, and at eleven she was volunteered by her school to run the hurdles at a county championship. Nineteen years later she is on a European Championships start list with an Olympic champion in her corner, and Los Angeles in 2028 is what she is training toward.

Happy birthday, Emma! Many happy returns of the day — wishing you good health, good luck and a flying year ahead over the barriers. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇧