Niels Laros 1:44.19

His progression in the 800m so far:

2020: 1:59.47

2021: 1:52.16

2022: 1:46.3

2023: 1:44.78

2024: 1:46.04

2025: 1:44.19

And if I'm not mistaken, only one runner in history has gone faster than Laros in BOTH the 800m (1:44.19) and 5000m (13:10.86), and that runner is Said Aouita (1:43.86 and 12:58.39). Pretty darn good for someone who is still only 20.

(It'd worth noting that Laros and Alan Webb both has the same exact PB in the 5000m with 13:10.86, and Webb's 800m PB is 1:43.84)

And the splits seem to be 51.1 for the first lap and 53.1 for the second lap

Did Aouita the cheater ever break 1:44 other than in 1988 - when he was training as an 800m runner and didn't run anything longer than a mile (and even his mile speed seemed to be affected, which is why he probably pulled out of the 1500 in Seoul to save face)?

Not very impressed with that. it’s not much faster than what Jonah Hoey can run

Which was dumb on his part seeing how the race turned out.

Hoey just ran 1:42.01 Though, So Hoey is much faster than Laros at this point.

That Heat was Crazy fast 1:44.06, 1:44.10 and 1:44.19 For the European under 23 Championsips, My guess is we see 1:43's in The Final

Jonah , not Josh. PR 1:44,98.

Btw - saw Jonah couple of weeks ago winning a 800m race at Osterode/Germany.

Other Hoey. There are three of them

Abdel Rahmana Al Assal, younger than him did 1.44.07 a month ago, without super-spike and completely normal track at Fez, while placing 1 with 5 meters ahead of others.

We don’t need to hear about any more African dopers.

I really hope Laros runs the 800 at a major championship one day. I feel like his 800 is very much world class level as well.

Are the U23 not major enough for you?

no not really

does anyone actually bring up u23 euro championship medals when you compare accolades for “best ever”?

worlds or olympics are major for me

MAYBE senior euros

I think you're right. Probably the closest after Webb for the 800m among those better at 5000m are Matthew Centrowitz (1:44.62/13:00) and Augustine Choge (1:44.86/12:53.66). Lopez Lomong ran 1:45.58/12:58.78.

Good point

I tried making a list over best combos of 800m and 5000m PBs. Here's the list (I'm probably missing some)

Said Aouita: 2424, 1:43.86 (1208) & 12:58.39 (1208)

Augustine Choge: 2411, 1:44.86 (1178) & 12:53.66 (1233)

Matthew Centrowitz 2393, 1:44.62 (1185) & 13:00.39 (1208)

Jakob Ingebrigtsen 2382, 1:46.44 (1130) & 12:48.45 (1252)

Ayanleh Souleiman 2381, 1:42.97 (1236) & 13:17.97 (1145)

Alan Webb 2379, 1:43.84 (1209) & 13:10.86 (1170)

Noureddine Morceli 2376, 1:44.79 (1180) & 13:03.85 (1196)

Bernard Lagat 2376, 1:46.00 (1143) & 12:53.60 (1233)

Lopez Lomong 2370, 1:45.58 (1156) & 12:58.78 (1214)

Niels Laros 2368, 1:44.19 (1198) & 13:10.86 (1170)

Steve Cram 2346, 1:42.88 (1239) & 13:28.58 (1107)

Steve Ovett 2338, 1:44.09 (1201) & 13:20.06 (1137)

Cole Hocker (1:45.13 & 12:57.82(i)) and Yared Nuguse (1:44.77 & 13.02.09(i)) obviously belongs on the list. The tricky part is the with indoor marks, the scoring gets very different. I agree that a 12:57 indoor is better than a 12:57 outdoor, but the scoring tables converts Hocker's 12:57 indoor to a 12:44 low outdoor, and Nuguse's 13:02 indoor to a 12:47 high outdoor. That is way too generous. If we uses outdoor points Hocker gets 2387 (1169 +1218) and Nuguse gets 2382 (1180 + 1202)

And Laros keeps delivering. Won the Gold in the 5000m a couple of minutes ago. 13:44.74, with a final lap of 54.11. 1.06 seconds ahead of Nicholas Griggs (Ireland). He runs the 800m final tomorrow 17:00 (05:00 PM) local time. (Bergen is 6 hours ahead of New York, and 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles)

(Also, shout out to Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen (who represented the same club as me for a while) for finishing 5th in 13:47.52 (still only 19))

Laros’ last 200 was 25.1, that’s some great closing speed. Slow race, but still impressive