Yared Nuguse had it all but won, until he didn’t.
In a jaw-dropping final sprint at Hayward Field on Saturday, 20-year-old Dutch phenom Niels Laros slipped through on the inside lane and leaned across the finish line just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Nuguse to win the Bowerman Mile at the 50th Prefontaine Classic in 3:45.94.
The photo finish stunned the sold-out crowd of 12,600 spectators, many convinced they’d just seen another dominant victory from the American mile record holder. Instead, they got one of the most dramatic upsets in meet history.
Laros, who hadn’t run a single 1500m or mile race this season before Saturday, seemed just as surprised as anyone.
“Saying ‘winner of the Bowerman Mile’ doesn’t really sound real to me right now,” Laros told The Register-Guard. “I’m just amazed by how the race went.”
From the opening gun, Nuguse went straight to the front, setting a brutal pace and building a 20-meter lead by the final lap.
But with 50 meters to go, Nuguse’s stride faltered, and the tank ran dry.
That’s when Laros surged, hugging the rail and darting through a tight gap inside lane one. In a finish that will be replayed for years, Laros closed the final meters with a burst of speed and composure that belied his age.
The result: Laros 3:45.94, Nuguse 3:45.95. It wasn’t just a win, it was a Dutch national record, and a career-defining breakthrough.
“I just want to keep mixing it with the best,” Laros said post-race, reflecting on his earlier sixth-place finish in Paris. “Now I think everyone knows I belong.”
For Nuguse, the sting of the loss was visible.
“I was like, ‘Oh God, I’ve spent everything in the tank at this point,’” he said. “I wasn’t going to look behind me because I didn’t want to see where people were, but I was still trying to grind my way through it.”
Behind the top two, France’s Azeddine Habz earned third place in 3:46.65, setting a French national record, while Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker finished fourth in 3:47.43, a personal best despite battling a cold heading into the meet.
“I knew it was going to be fast,” Hocker said. “I was just telling myself to go with it as much as you can.”
The Bowerman Mile has always delivered unexpected fireworks, but few could have predicted this ending. Laros, who entered without a single mile performance on record for the season, walked away with the win, a record, and the spotlight.
With the World Championships in Paris looming, the men’s 1500 meters suddenly feels wide open. And if Saturday’s finish was any indication, Niels Laros isn’t just arriving, he might already be here to stay.
