The sisters have seized the prospect to remain put within the British capital and work alongside coach Tony Lester, as they search to determine the UK’s premier dash group
Having misplaced monitor of the variety of air miles they’ve racked up over latest years, Laviai and Lina Nielsen are relieved to be residence with a brand new aspiration: to assist their coach Tony Lester create the highest dash group in Britain.
It was again in 2021, post-Tokyo Olympics, that their international ventures started; not by alternative however – the best way they see it – by necessity.
“I knew I wanted to make the step up however couldn’t discover a coach within the UK that was an excellent match or had coaching companions round,” explains Laviai. “I may see a whole lot of our sprinters had been going to the US so I believed that might be an choice.”
Spells in Florida, Austria and Denmark duly then adopted however, after a 2024 season that noticed them each earn Olympic 4×400 metres bronze medals, they jumped on the alternative to return to London this autumn.
GB girls’s 4x400m squad in Paris (Getty)
The sisters had by no means significantly needed to go away their residence nation within the first place, however felt they’d few choices. Of the 5 feminine British sprinters (100-400m) introduced on top-level UK Athletics funding earlier this month, all prepare abroad with international coaches. The Nielsens and Lester consider that speaks volumes about athletics teaching in Britain – and so they wish to do one thing about it.
“I believe we’ve got an absence of teaching within the UK, particularly throughout the sprints,” states Laviai.
It was this dearth that originally prompted the transfer overseas and subsequently led them to their present coach within the Danish metropolis of Aarhus.
Lester is aware of greater than a factor or two about his artwork. Throughout a 14-year interval in numerous roles for UK Athletics, he helped the likes of Roger Black, Mark Richardson, Nicola Sanders, Abi Oyepitan, Tim Benjamin and Marlon Devonish all compete on the worldwide stage. A collection of disagreements with the governing physique’s combative head coach Charles van Commenee triggered him to go away athletics, earlier than he returned for stints with nationwide federations in Germany and Denmark.
Now he’s getting ready to go for Brunel in west London, the place he hopes to fill the void for British sprinters in search of a world-class group at residence.
Thus far, 5 Olympians are onboard, with Group GB relay athletes Ama Pipi and Niclas Baker becoming a member of the Nielsen twins and Eire’s Sharlene Mawdsley. The door is completely open for additional additions.
Sharlene Mawdsley (Getty)
Lester, just like the Nielsens, doesn’t consider dash teaching is presently as much as the required customary in Britain. He locations the blame firmly on governing our bodies relatively than the coaches themselves.
“The UK doesn’t lend itself to supporting coaches,” he says. “Even after I was a nationwide coach again within the day, we by no means had coach training. So how can we upskill our coaches? We’d like seminars and have to ship coaches to workshops round Europe.
“All the cash was spent elsewhere and I believe that’s unfair as a result of our coaches get judged as being s**t when they aren’t. I simply don’t suppose they get sufficient assist from the folks in cost, be that UK Athletics or UK Sport or whoever.
“So athletes come by way of the system and do the identical stuff they did 15 years in the past. I’m not going to take a seat and diss UK coaches, however I go searching and suppose: ‘Who’s there that may be a actually good coach?’ I don’t know.
“Why are Daryll Neita and Jeremiah Azu in Italy? Why did these guys [Nielsens] go to Austria? Why achieve this many guys go to America?”
Tony Lester (Getty)
Lester started teaching the twins after an opportunity encounter with Lina in a lodge foyer on the 2023 Lausanne Diamond League. “We all the time chuckle as a result of it took him three days to then reply to my textual content, which left us pondering we weren’t adequate for him,” says Lina.
Of their first 12 months underneath his cost, each sisters ran private bests, and their bond grew unexpectedly nearer when he suffered a distressing cardiac arrest whereas taking a coaching session in Denmark precisely per week earlier than the European Championships.
“It was a really fortunate day that there have been so many individuals on the monitor,” remembers Laviai. “There was a health care provider on web site just about instantly so his life was saved in a short time.”
Lester provides: “Had I been alone, I wouldn’t be right here speaking to you now.”
The addition of a brand new pacemaker has left him feeling “bulletproof”, however the episode was one of many catalysts for him to return to his household at residence and try to construct an elite group across the Nielsens.
GB 4x400m girls’s group (Getty)
“We wish to emulate what the dash coaches are doing within the US and arrange a very good group within the UK,” says Lina. “The one different comparable group I can consider is Trevor Painter’s group, however that’s for center distance. That’s what we wish to create in London.”
Painter, and his spouse Jenny Meadows, have turn out to be customary bearers on the UK teaching scene after seeing their M11 Observe Membership go from energy to energy, with Keely Hodgkinson, Georgia Bell and Lewis Davey all successful medals on the Paris Olympics.
“I’ve recognized Trevor eternally and he’s achieved some nice work,” says Lester. “However he’s needed to work onerous to get to this stage – it hasn’t been simple. I used to be very fortunate as a result of I used to be employed by UK Athletics for 14 years. Trevor wasn’t even employed by UK Athletics so he’s achieved an incredible job.”
As his athletes – previous and new – start making their solution to their new west London residence over the approaching weeks, Lester is readying himself to go away his position in Denmark earlier than starting his new step into the unknown from the beginning of January. Success for him and the Nielsens is the preliminary goal, nevertheless it may have far wider implications for British sprinting.
» This characteristic first appeared within the November subject of AW journal. Subscribe to AW journal right here, try our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here
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