All-around athlete Leo Neugebauer has confirmed his medal ambitions for the Summer Olympics in Paris, but narrowly missed the next German record.
The 23-year-old was well on his way to breaking Frank Busemann’s German heptathlon record from 2002 (6291 points) at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque under the hall roof – but he showed weaknesses in the last two disciplines and ultimately achieved 6219 Points.
Neugebauer got off to a brilliant start on Friday, setting a personal best in the 60 meters in 6.96 seconds. Neugebauer was also in good shape in the long jump (7.75 m), shot put (16.77 m), high jump (2.05 m) and on Saturday in the 60 meter hurdles (8.25 seconds).
As usual, the fifth-placed World Cup winner from Budapest started the pole vault late, but at 4.80 m he fell a full 41 centimeters below his best. He needed 2:46.10 minutes over the final 1000 m – around two and a half seconds more than his house record. The brand of Atlanta Olympic runner-up Busemann still exists after 22 years.
Just last June, Neugebauer, who studied at the University of Texas and competes in Germany for VfB Stuttgart, improved Jürgen Hingsen’s 39-year-old German decathlon record and became the beacon of hope for struggling German athletics.
“A medal is due” in 2024, Neugebauer recently said on Leichtathletik.de: “That’s what I’m trying to work towards.” He also thinks the magical mark of 9,000 points is possible. The world record set by Frenchman Kevin Mayer in 2018 is 9,126 points.
“It’s above all a question of consistency,” said Neugebauer, who improved his best performance to 8,836 points last year, and he also had to “get a little more out of each discipline. Then the 9,000 points are feasible.” So far only four decathletes have broken this mark.