Laviai and Lina Nielsen on why they wish to prepare in London

The sisters have seized the possibility to remain put within the British capital and work alongside coach Tony Lester, as they search to ascertain the UK’s premier dash group

Having misplaced observe of the variety of air miles they’ve racked up over latest years, Laviai and Lina Nielsen are relieved to be house 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 overseas 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 match or had coaching companions round,” explains Laviai. “I might see loads of our sprinters have been going to the US so I assumed that could possibly 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.

The sisters had by no means significantly wished to go away their house 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 overseas 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 now have 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 sequence of disagreements with the governing physique’s combative head coach Charles van Commenee brought about 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 searching for a world-class group at house.

Up to now, 5 Olympians are onboard, with Crew 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.

Lester, just like the Nielsens, doesn’t consider dash teaching is at the moment as much as the required commonplace in Britain. He locations the blame firmly on governing our bodies fairly than the coaches themselves.

“The UK doesn’t lend itself to supporting coaches,” he says. “Even once I was a nationwide coach again within the day, we by no means had coach training. So how can we upskill our coaches? We want 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 assume they get sufficient help 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 sit down and diss UK coaches, however I go searching and assume: ‘Who’s there that could 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?”

Lester started teaching the twins after an opportunity encounter with Lina in a resort foyer on the 2023 Lausanne Diamond League. “We at all times snort as a result of it took him three days to then reply to my textual content, which left us considering we weren’t adequate for him,” says Lina.

Of their first yr below 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 every week earlier than the European Championships.

“It was a really fortunate day that there have been so many individuals on the observe,” recollects Laviai. “There was a physician on website just about instantly so his life was saved in a short time.”

Lester provides: “Had I been by myself, 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 house and try and construct an elite group across the Nielsens.

“We wish to emulate what the dash coaches are doing within the US and arrange a extremely 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 develop into commonplace bearers on the UK teaching scene after seeing their M11 Monitor Membership go from power to power, with Keely Hodgkinson, Georgia Bell and Lewis Davey all successful medals on the Paris Olympics.

“I’ve identified Trevor eternally and he’s carried out some nice work,” says Lester. “However he’s needed to work laborious to get to this degree – it hasn’t been straightforward. 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 carried out an incredible job.”

As his athletes – previous and new – start making their solution to their new west London house 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 might have far wider implications for British sprinting.

» This function first appeared within the November difficulty 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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