Twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen set sights on medals at European Indoors after carrying kit at London 2012

Twin ambition: Lina and Laviai Nielsen are going for gold in Belgrade
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On their last shift as kit carriers at London 2012, the Nielsen twins - Lina and Laviai - were told by their manager they could dream of returning to the venue as athletes in London 2017.

As is their custom, they laughed - “everyone says we laugh too much”, interjects Lina - at the ridiculousness of the concept.

Then aged just 16, Laviai had just carried the kit for Jessica Ennis-Hill en route to her heptathlon gold, expressly told not to look at anything but the lane in front of her.

“I remember though, the cheer for Jess was just the loudest thing I’d ever heard,” she recalls. “I couldn’t help but look around. It was pretty surreal for two 16-year-olds. I remember seeing Jess and the others and thinking we’re going to take years to get to that point.”

But the years have been kind. The pair will celebrate their 21st birthdays next week after their joint appearance at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, which gets under way tomorrow and where they have qualified for the 400metres as well as doubling up in the 4x400m relay.

For them, it is something both refer to as a “stepping stone”, the ultimate for the season in its entirety being an appearance at London 2017 in August, and if they qualify they will be the most local athletes to the venue.

The Nielsen family home is a 20-minute walk from the Olympic Stadium, and both vividly recall sitting watching the Opening Ceremony five years ago, and having to shut the windows, the roars and fireworks from the stadium playing out moments before the ever so slightly delayed television pictures.

But first is their debut in GB’s senior colours having both appeared at the European Junior Championships in 2015 where Laviai won individual gold and they paired up for gold in the 4x400m.

“It’s nice to have qualified together,” says Lina, “because Laviai’s always been that bit ahead of me so I always assumed she’d get there first. And for me, it’s a nice surprise as the indoors was never really part of the plan. Our Mum’s away at the moment but when we told her, she cried. She’s really proud.”

There were tears too for the twins at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix as Lina ducked below the required qualifying time to ensure her place alongside her sister, who is ranked fourth on the continent this season and hopeful of a medal in Belgrade.

Laviai adds: “My goal’s have changed now I’m ranked fourth in Europe and in with a shot of a medal. It’s not where I thought I’d be at this time in the year.”

It is also a far cry from 2012 when the sisters were 800m runners, the pair only switching to half that distance a year later, eating up the ground on track between them in the intervening three-and-a-half years.

In unison - a repeat facet of any conversation with the sisters - they claim the 400m is “so much harder than the 800m”.

But after Belgrade, their plans change. Lina has set her sights on a switch to the 400m hurdles, as she puts it “as twins, it’s nice to do something different”.

The pair admit to being very similar, to the extent their A-level grades of A*, A and B mirrored each other.

But each has found their own different educational and now athletic path, Lina studying chemistry at St Mary’s and Laviai in the midst of a year out from her geography degree at King’s College London.

The former has just handed in her dissertation on “the changing nature of doping and detection techniques in sport”, one she admits is an apt subject with the issues that athletics currently faces.

“It’s been tough,” says Lina, although helped by her sister stepping in to do the cooking at the flat they share together.

As for what Belgrade holds in store, both are unequivocal… “a medal, definitely a medal”.

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