Here he is winning the 3000m at the U18 championships. Nice to see him doing the Jakob/Ovett wave in the home straight. Pretty sure the explosion in talent in Europe over the last 10 years has been at least partly due to kids watching classic Ovett races on YouTube.
Double Dutch delight for Niels Laros, as he stormed to the European U18 3000m title. In a time of 8:11.49 , Laros won by two seconds to his closest rival And...
A great talent, a bit like Ingebrigtsen but maybe less power, more focus on souplesse. And indeed lots of talent in Europa, also in the younger categories and in all distances. Summer break now in Holland but talent groups everywhere , putting in the work. For sure, there's something going on. Looking out for the next Olympics. Paris 2024 is perhaps too soon but 2028 and 2032 will be quite interesting.
A great talent, a bit like Ingebrigtsen but maybe less power, more focus on souplesse. And indeed lots of talent in Europa, also in the younger categories and in all distances. Summer break now in Holland but talent groups everywhere , putting in the work. For sure, there's something going on. Looking out for the next Olympics. Paris 2024 is perhaps too soon but 2028 and 2032 will be quite interesting.
Except that Jakob has never run 1:46.30. His PB is only 1:46.44 (BTW: he is a couple of months younger than L. Young)
A great talent, a bit like Ingebrigtsen but maybe less power, more focus on souplesse. And indeed lots of talent in Europa, also in the younger categories and in all distances. Summer break now in Holland but talent groups everywhere , putting in the work. For sure, there's something going on. Looking out for the next Olympics. Paris 2024 is perhaps too soon but 2028 and 2032 will be quite interesting.
Except that Jakob has never run 1:46.30. His PB is only 1:46.44 (BTW: he is a couple of months younger than L. Young)
That is pretty sick range for a 17 year old . It is sort of amazing how many of these kids we have running around right now. It will be curious to see how many are just running fast at a young age and how many keep taking steps. A lot of those African teams that we thought were stupid for an 18 year old now don't seem as absurd after seeing what JI and the rest have done...
Is his father Marcel Laros, who ran for UTEP in the early 1990's? He was an All-American, and ran the steeple at a few World Championships for Holland in the late 90's.
Pretty sure mostly because of watching Bekele, Farah, El G, Rudisha.
Well watching El G and Bekele live didn't exactly do much for the emergence of European talent 20 years ago. You might have a point about Farah and Rudisha in GB, especially given the 2012 London Olympics. Rudisha is Max Burgin's hero, and he was possibly inspired by his 2012 run.
Is his father Marcel Laros, who ran for UTEP in the early 1990's? He was an All-American, and ran the steeple at a few World Championships for Holland in the late 90's.
Yup that's his dad. His mom also became the Dutch national indoor champion one time apparently.
Is his father Marcel Laros, who ran for UTEP in the early 1990's? He was an All-American, and ran the steeple at a few World Championships for Holland in the late 90's.
A great talent, a bit like Ingebrigtsen but maybe less power, more focus on souplesse. And indeed lots of talent in Europa, also in the younger categories and in all distances. Summer break now in Holland but talent groups everywhere , putting in the work. For sure, there's something going on. Looking out for the next Olympics. Paris 2024 is perhaps too soon but 2028 and 2032 will be quite interesting.
Except that Jakob has never run 1:46.30. His PB is only 1:46.44 (BTW: he is a couple of months younger than L. Young)
That's right and his progression is remarkable. Two years ago a not so special 15 years old and now 1:46. Also keep in mind that his favourite distances are the 1500, 3000 and 5000. 23/08/2022 1:46,30 Oordegem 18/06/2022 1:53,72 Amsterdam (final nationals U18) 17/06/2022 2:02,17 Amsterdam (heats nationals U18) 13/05/2022 1:50,46 Utrecht 28/08/2021 1:52,66 Wageningen 16/07/2021 1:52,16 Utrecht 26/07/2020 1:59,47 Dongen 07/09/2019 2:03,57 Vught 09/08/2019 2:08,06 Utrecht 20/07/2019 2:05,05 Heusden-Zolder
The kid just turned 17 in April and he is obviously not close to physical maturity, yet he's already made huge drops in the past two years. According to the IAAF page, he dropped 6 seconds in the 800m this year, from 1:52 to 1:46 (4 seconds just from May). He's the Euro U18 1500m and 3k champ. He's run 3:43/8:04. This 800m indicates that he should drop that 1500m time by a lot next time out in a faster race. He's also run 13:57 on the track and 14:22 on the roads. So, if you put this in an American context, he'd be just now entering his senior year of high school, as a typical senior turning 18 in the spring of his graduation year; he'd already have the American 800m record; he'd be top ten all-time American hs in the 3k (8:04); he'd be probably top 20 in the 5000m at 13:57; and he'd be right about at 4:01 and with his 800m speed on the verge of going well under 4 in the mile.
He does do the Steve Ovett wave but it's not from watching Steve Ovett videos that there is this amazing resurgence of European talent in the distances. It is the Jakob effect. Belief that they can do it as well as African runners or anyone else is back because of Jakob. For decades, Europeans didn't believe they could do it. The only successes were African-born. So, now they know that genetic pseudo-science is nonsense. It's all about the hard and smart training from an early age. That's why you have Europeans coming out of the wood work at earlier ages, Danish, Norwegians, Dutch, English, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, and the year after Jakob won the Olympics, Jake and Ollie (Aussie, of course) win the big titles, and there are many young guys coming up who are good, just as in Kenya and Ethiopia, and so, the belief is there again and it makes for an exciting time when the winners are unpredictable and come from all over.
The kid just turned 17 in April and he is obviously not close to physical maturity, yet he's already made huge drops in the past two years. According to the IAAF page, he dropped 6 seconds in the 800m this year, from 1:52 to 1:46 (4 seconds just from May). He's the Euro U18 1500m and 3k champ. He's run 3:43/8:04. This 800m indicates that he should drop that 1500m time by a lot next time out in a faster race. He's also run 13:57 on the track and 14:22 on the roads. So, if you put this in an American context, he'd be just now entering his senior year of high school, as a typical senior turning 18 in the spring of his graduation year; he'd already have the American 800m record; he'd be top ten all-time American hs in the 3k (8:04); he'd be probably top 20 in the 5000m at 13:57; and he'd be right about at 4:01 and with his 800m speed on the verge of going well under 4 in the mile.
He does do the Steve Ovett wave but it's not from watching Steve Ovett videos that there is this amazing resurgence of European talent in the distances. It is the Jakob effect. Belief that they can do it as well as African runners or anyone else is back because of Jakob. For decades, Europeans didn't believe they could do it. The only successes were African-born. So, now they know that genetic pseudo-science is nonsense. It's all about the hard and smart training from an early age. That's why you have Europeans coming out of the wood work at earlier ages, Danish, Norwegians, Dutch, English, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, and the year after Jakob won the Olympics, Jake and Ollie (Aussie, of course) win the big titles, and there are many young guys coming up who are good, just as in Kenya and Ethiopia, and so, the belief is there again and it makes for an exciting time when the winners are unpredictable and come from all over.
great points! I'm excited to see this kid grow. wonder what his training is like? he's got the perfect body and legs for a runner.