The sisters have seized the chance to stay put in the British capital and work alongside coach Tony Lester, as they seek to establish the UK’s premier sprint group
Having lost track of the number of air miles they have racked up over recent years, Laviai and Lina Nielsen are relieved to be home with a new aspiration: to help their coach Tony Lester create the top sprint group in Britain.
It was back in 2021, post-Tokyo Olympics, that their foreign ventures began; not by choice but – the way they see it – by necessity.
“I knew I needed to make the step up but couldn’t find a coach in the UK that was a good fit or had training partners around,” explains Laviai. “I could see a lot of our sprinters were going to the US so I thought that could be an option.”
Spells in Florida, Austria and Denmark duly then followed but, after a 2024 season that saw them both earn Olympic 4×400 metres bronze medals, they jumped at the opportunity to return to London this autumn.
GB women’s 4x400m squad in Paris (Getty)
The sisters had never particularly wanted to leave their home country in the first place, but felt they had few options. Of the five female British sprinters (100-400m) announced on top-level UK Athletics funding earlier this month, all train overseas with foreign coaches. The Nielsens and Lester believe that speaks volumes about athletics coaching in Britain – and they want to do something about it.
“I think we have a lack of coaching in the UK, especially across the sprints,” states Laviai.
It was this dearth that initially prompted the move abroad and subsequently led them to their current coach in the Danish city of Aarhus.
Lester knows more than a thing or two about his art. During a 14-year period in various 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 global stage. A series of disagreements with the governing body’s combative head coach Charles van Commenee caused him to leave athletics, before he returned for stints with national federations in Germany and Denmark.
Now he is preparing to head for Brunel in west London, where he hopes to fill the void for British sprinters seeking a world-class group at home.
So far, five Olympians are onboard, with Team GB relay athletes Ama Pipi and Niclas Baker joining the Nielsen twins and Ireland’s Sharlene Mawdsley. The door is permanently open for further additions.
Sharlene…
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