Veronica Cioccoloni

Happy birthday to Italy’s hurdler Veronica Cioccoloni, who has spent 2026 rewriting her own record book from top to bottom.

Four of Veronica’s five personal bests were set this year. She opened the indoor season with 8.48 over the 60m hurdles at the Palaindoor in Ancona in February, then took her 100m hurdles best down to 13.41 at Rieti in May. In August she was still racing, running a leg of a 4x100m in 44.61. That is a full season, indoors and out, with the numbers moving in one direction the whole way.

The hurdles are where sprinting stops being about speed alone. Ten barriers, a stride pattern that has to be identical every single time, and a rhythm that punishes hesitation more harshly than it punishes an error. Getting faster over them usually means something technical has clicked rather than simply that the legs got stronger, and technical clicks tend to hold.

She races for Astra Atletica, she is still a junior, and there is a very great deal of season left in a career that has barely started.

Buon compleanno, Veronica! Tanti auguri, e che qualcuno oggi ti tiri le orecchie diciannove volte, come vuole la tradizione. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇮🇹