1/2 Niels Laros in 2017 (photo: Marcel Laros).
He is only twenty years old, but from Saturday, Niels Laros will be an important candidate for gold in the 1500 meters and a high ranking in the 5000 meters during the World Cup Athletics in Tokyo. At his old club ATV Scorpio in Oosterhout they live with the largest Dutch athletics talent. “It is wonderful that Manneke can bring this,” says his youth trainer Ger Kuijsters.
Niels ended up in the group of Ger Kuijsters as a boy of ten. “It was a calm boy who carried out the assignments nicely. We did the all -around camp, but when running his talent was immediately clear. Not surprising with his parents Marcel and Sandra, who also walked and were very fanatic. But I did not expect that he would become a world topper then.”
According to Kuijsters, the tactic of Niels was often to sprint forward and run away from the competition at the end of a race. “You actually still see that tactic with him. His last two hundred meters are formidable.”
With the necessary tension in the body, Kuijsters will follow the World Cup next week, on television. “The stage in the 1500 meters is realistic and Niels can certainly become champions. But even if he doesn’t win, he has done his best anyway. Before the Paris Olympic Games, I said that he will ever take the Olympic title. He is such a great talent and his best years. Niels is for the Athletiek.”
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After the group of Kuijsters, Niels started training at Henk Rams and Herman Vrijthof within ATV Scorpio. Rams has known the super talent since Niels was very small, a baby still. “His parents both walked at Scorpio. When Niels and his brothers Lars were a bit older, they also became members. Relige boys and very good athletes, where Niels was a bit better,” Rams recalls. Soon the brothers were so good that they were also allowed to walk with the seniors.
In 2022, Niels moved to Sportcentrum Papendal to train with the national team. “What makes him so successful? He is always very focused and lives towards a competition,” says Rams. “He has such a good instinct for where he should walk. That was already in it naturally and he now benefits a lot. On Papendal he has developed further. Although his performance at international level has surprised me a bit.”
“The World Cup is a different story, you have to be lucky.”
It will not surprise Rams if his former pupil in Tokyo beats the rest of the world top. “He has shown what he can do in the past games. But the World Cup is a different story, you have to be lucky with the series. If you are tapped once, it is over. And you can always get shot in once. But Niels is intelligent enough to find his place. We will look at the 1500 and 5000 meters with a lot of tension.”
His old trainer thinks that the prize cabinet in Huize Laros will be filled considerably in the future. “Niels has years to develop further. Although it always works at top athletes that they want to perform now. I give him a very good chance.”
Chairman Jos Bleijleens calls Laros a perfect calling card for the association. The athlete from Oosterhout was appointed honorary member this year. “It is not that he shouts in interviews that he used to train at Scorpio, but everyone knows that he started here. Whether our growing number of members is due to the ‘Niels Laros effect’ I do not know, but it is undoubtedly positive for us. We are retoor on Niels.”
Program Niels Laros
The series of the 1500 meters are Sunday 14 September at 2.35 pm. Monday, September 15, the semi -final is at 2.30 pm and Wednesday the 17th the final at 3.20 pm. Two days later the series of the 5000 meters and Sunday 21 September at 12.50 pm are the final of this song.