Narve Nordas on Niels Laros: "We're talking about a talent the size of Jakob - No doubt about it."

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Jakob ran 3:30.16 at the age of 18. Laros' PR when he attains age 19 will be 3:31

It's really interesting to see Europeans now running as equals to the Africans in md events. Either the Africans are reducing what they are on or the Europeans have caught the same train.

No one, ever, expected such a post from you. How original!

What I mean is that Laros is 18 years, 4 months and 29 days, and at that point Jakob’s 1500 PB was 3:31.18.

Good point. Their coaches [Meuwly, Lewandowski] were both hired by Charles van Commenee during his tenure as director of the Dutch T&F program. Most of the athletes are at the national training center [Papendal].

Jakob was perhaps better than Niels at 18, but went on the high mileage train earlier. Niels barely got started.

There isn't anything original about the ways athletes get to the top. It's been around for years.

Expect to see more "generational talents" come from countries you wouldn't expect. Countries playing catch up.

That being said, the ability to withstand all of that training and stay healthy is a talent. Jakob has that, and we can hope Laros similarly stays healthy when he starts running 65-80 mpw year-round as opposed to just in camps like now.

Nordas is wrong saying that Laros' main focus area is 800 and 1500. Solely 1500. Though he has the potential to be a great 5000 runner too. But tomorrow I think Nordas will beat him. But if Laros runs sub 3:49.29 he will be the record holder U 20. That might be possible.

Guys i'm not sure how to tell you that Reynold Cheruyiot has better times than Jakob at this age (both in 1500m and 2000m and also in 5000m) and had better times than Laros too 8 months ago, when he was at Laros age.

If there Is one going to dominate the middle distances in very few years this Is the Kenyan.

Laros is a teenager.

Cheruyiot is a 'teenager'.

Sorry but I don't find Cheruiyot's age reasonable at all. He looks in his low to mid 20s, first of all, and he just bursts onto the scene in 2022 with a 3:34 at 17, just before his "18th birthday," no history of years of previous times to show his development. With a guy like Laros, you have years of times and enormous improvement once he went pro (1:59 to 1:52 in a year, for instance). He has Lewandowski's brother as coach, which doesn't give a great deal of confidence that he is clean, but he's young, has the parental history, and has not gotten to any plateau for years and then dropped a ton, so there's no indication he would have needed to consider doping in any way.

The right combo of PED's will do all that.

My hot take is that he'll be better than Jakob.

With his superior 800m speed, he'll be a major threat to Jakob in championship races as he develops and matures.

He looks about the same age as Laros to me. He ran 13:39 at altitude (Kip Keino Classic) in 2021 at 17, which you're pretending didn't happen I guess. In 2022 to 2023, he went from 3:34 to 3:30. This seems to be pretty consistent with getting into faster races and developing as a runner. If he was in his mid-20s, why would he have given up years of his prime so he could *check notes* make less money and compete in obscure Kenyan meets with no prize money.

The more plausible story is he was in school in 2019-2021, got representation after his Kip Keino run in 2021. Since then, he's been a standout. If you read his background, his parents were both domestic athletes who never competed overseas, and he is from the same area as Tim Cheruiyot.

I could also see Jakob moving up in distance away from the 1500 around the time that Laros peaks in the 1500. This is not to say that Jakob would duck him, but based on his own comments he will stick with the 1500 as long as he thinks he can continue to improve. So perhaps when Laros peaks, Jakob will be doing the 5000/10000 at that time.

I think Cheruiyot is also a huge talent, but what you are saying is not really true. Laros' 2023 more resembes Cheruiyot's 2022 if anything as the first year he's at the pro level mixing it up. Cheruiyot's PBs from 2022 are a bit misleading as he was in 1st/2nd in Continental Tour Gold Meets despite modest (3:34/7:39) times, but Laros is ahead as far as making the World final and running 1:44hi/3:31. They are different runners with Cheruiyot having great strength, Laros great speed. The cool part is both have great kicks, and will be dueling in the 1500. Let's enjoy it and not dump on either of them for no reason.