Nais Ivain

Happy birthday to France’s relentlessly improving 400m hurdler Naïs Ivain, a Pas-de-Calais athlete who has just put together far and away the best season of her career.

Ivain has run the six fastest 400m hurdles races of her life this summer, all inside the same handful of weeks. She took her personal best down to 1:03.22 at Lens in early July, finishing second in the A final, and three days later she went to Arras and won the A final there in 1:03.99. That came on top of a winter in which she set indoor personal bests over 400m (1:00.37 at Liévin), 200m (26.70 in Gent) and the 60m hurdles (9.51). Career bests in four different events, in one season, in her first year in the senior ranks.

She is a product of her corner of France in the best way. She started out at Saint-Venant Athlétisme and now races for Artois Athlétisme, and she came to the hurdles by an unusual road — she was a departmental race-walk champion at twelve, winning at Avion in 11:58 out in front on her own from the gun, and she still races the 3000m walk for her club when the Interclubs team sheet needs filling. She will also throw the discus, vault, triple jump or run a relay leg if that is what the team needs, which is the sort of athlete every club captain quietly builds a season around. She won silver in the 400m hurdles at the French University Indoor Championships in Metz representing the Université d’Artois, where she studies STAPS on the Liévin campus.

Joyeux anniversaire, Naïs! Nous t’adressons nos vœux les plus sincères — une bonne santé, beaucoup de bonheur et une très belle année, avec des haies qui continuent de tomber les unes après les autres. Profite bien de ta journée! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇫🇷