Lurdes Gloria Manuel celebrates her world U20 400m title in Lima (© Oscar Munoz Badilla)
“I thought I was about to fall down,” says Lurdes Gloria Manuel, reliving the final moments of the women’s 400m final at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24. “But it’s good.”
She was good. She was great, in fact. On a cold night in the Peruvian capital on Thursday (29), the 19-year-old Czech athlete was all class and composure, patiently expending her energy during the early part of the race and then turning up the heat on her rivals around the final turn.
Nigeria’s Ella Onojuvwevwo had gone with her, but in the end that backfired badly as Manuel blasted away on the home straight to take gold in 51.29, a long way clear of Canada’s Dianna Proctor (51.98) and USA’s Zaya Akins (52.00), with Onojuvwevwo fading to fifth in 52.61.
Lurdes Gloria Manuel on her way to the world U20 400m title in Lima (© Oscar Munoz Badilla)
It capped another memorable year for the European U20 champion, who broke the Czech U20 record three times during the summer, clocking 50.52 in the European final in Rome and making her Olympic debut in Paris where she reached the 400m semifinals.
“This season was so very long for me, and this is the best ending,” she said.
The journey to the top of a global podium completed a journey that was over a decade in the making. Manuel took up athletics at the age of eight, while at school in Tabor, a town of just under 35,000 that’s about 90km south of Prague.
Her father is from Angola, her mother is from Russia, and they met when her dad was studying at a university in Russia, the couple moving to Czechia before starting a family. It’s no surprise that Manuel is multilingual, speaking Czech, Russian, English and “a little bit of Portuguese and French”.
Soon after showing her talent in schools’ races, her parents, who had no background in athletics, signed her up for the local club. She did a variety of events in her youth and was more of an 800m specialist before turning her focus to the sprints, but in the 400m she found her best distance.
In 2022, at the age of 16, she smashed her PB to clock 53.19 and win the Czech U20 title, then went to the European U18 Championships and won silver in 53.61. Her progress continued last year, Manuel smashing the Czech U20 record and clocking 51.23 to finish second at her national senior championships, then went on to win the European U20 title in 51.94.
She is coached by Sarka Chladkova and Ratislav Sedina and in Lima on Thursday, Manuel was quick to credit those who’d helped her get to this position. “Thanks to my team, coaches and my family because they are supporting me all the time,” she said.
Manuel still has one year left of school and said she has “thought about an American university” next year but is “not 100% sure”. When she’s not training or studying, she loves dancing, drawing and singing, but there’s no doubt where her greatest talent lies.
On the track, she reached a new level this year, her 50.59 in Ostrava in June qualifying her for the Paris Olympics. In the European final in Rome, still a month shy of her 19th birthday, she was less than half a second away from a medal in fourth. It set her up for her first appearance at the Olympics.
“It was amazing in Paris,” she says. “It was the most stressful event of the season, the biggest event and I wanted to show my best performance.”
Lurdes Gloria Manuel in the 400m at the Paris Olympics (© AFP / Getty Images)
Manuel finished sixth in her 400m heat in 52.20, third in her repechage in 50.81 and eighth in her semifinal in 51.42. “It was very successful for me, I couldn’t ever imagine I would make it to the Olympics at that age,” she says.
But she had scant time to dwell on it before Lima began to loom into view, Manuel knowing she had the chance to crown her season by leaving the U20 ranks as a global champion.
And once that vision had come true, how would she celebrate? “I want to go and get some sleep,” she smiled.
She was asked what advice she would give to young athletes and Manuel said to “follow your dreams and do what you think will be best for you, and enjoy it.”
Her favourite athlete has long been Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and given her trajectory, is Manuel looking forward to racing the US superstar in the years ahead? “No, I’m scared,” she laughed. “She’s the fastest woman I know.”
McLaughlin-Levrone, of course, set the bar at an extremely high level for precocious teenage athletes, and it’s notable she ran 50.07 for 400m back in 2018, a few months before her 19th birthday. But Manuel’s 50.52 shortly before her 19th birthday isn’t that far behind.
Manuel knows she has vast scope for improvement in the years ahead, and wants to focus “more on details like recovery, food and this stuff”, the little one-percenters that might one day see her emulate this success at senior level.
Because from here, the possibilities seem endless.
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics
