Isabella Mosquera

Happy birthday to Colombia’s discus thrower Isabella Mosquera, and throwers do not get told this nearly often enough, so let us be clear: what she did in July was outstanding.

At the national U20 championships at the Estadio Pedro Grajales in Cali in early July, Isabella threw 47.12m to win the title, a mark reported as a new record for the category. She did it on her home ground, in her own region, in front of the people who watched her learn the event. She is ranked 143rd in the world in the discus and already carries an Ibero-American Championships bronze medal.

The discus is the least forgiving event on the field. A sprinter having an off day still runs. A discus thrower a fraction out of the circle’s rhythm gets a foul and nothing else. It is a full second of accelerating rotation that has to finish in exactly the right place, and it takes years before it becomes reliable. and it is already reliable.

She throws out of the Universidad Santiago de Cali, in a region that takes its athletics as seriously as anywhere in the Americas.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Isabella! Que cumplás muchos más, con mucha salud y mucha alegría, y disfrutá tu día. Que el disco se te vaya siempre lejos. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇨🇴