Niklas Kaul created the sensation and snatched the European title in the decathlon from Simon Ehammer from Switzerland, who had been leading for a long time.
The Swiss Simon Ehammer against the German Niklas Kaul – that’s how the long-distance duel in the European Championship decathlon in Munich seemed to be from the moment that the French top favorite Kevin Mayer had to retire early on the first day due to an injury.
One had to speak of a long-distance duel because Ehammer and Kaul are such fundamentally different types of competition. While the Swiss has almost all of his strengths on the first day, Kaul only really gets going on the second day.
Ehammer shines on day one
Just like this time: Ehammer scored big on the first day with a sensational long jump (8.31 meters) and great high jump (2.08 meters), while Kaul stayed within the scope of his possibilities – but just far behind.
At the beginning of the second day, Kaul started to catch up as usual. The former world champion from Mainz put in a decent performance over the 110 m hurdles in 14.45 seconds. The 24-year-old was seventh after eight disciplines with 6,682 points. Simon Ehammer was still in the lead (7202), Kai Kazmirek was fifth (6757).
Javelin Throw – Sensational Kaul is catching up
The situation then came to a head in the penultimate discipline – javelin throwing: While Ehammer weakened a bit for the first time and only threw a good 53 meters, Kaul threw the javelin to 70.98 meters in his first attempt. Suddenly Ehammer was within range again.
And that’s not all: In his third attempt, the extremely focused Kaul catapulted the javelin to an almost unbelievable 76.05 meters!
1500 meters – a triumphal run
In the final 1500-meter run, Kaul then managed his masterpiece: with the shot of the starting pistol, he stormed ahead and kept up the pace to the cheers of the atmospheric Olympic Stadium. He raced across the finish line in a personal best of 4:10.04.
Ehammer didn’t stand a chance. He was 27 seconds ahead of Kaul before the run – that wasn’t enough. In the end he was 38 seconds slower. Kaul’s 8,545 total points ended up being 77 more than Ehammer’s 8,468.
Drama about Abele
Meanwhile, Arthur Abele’s decathlon career seemed to end in a little drama: the defending champion was initially disqualified for a false start over the 110 meter hurdles. The Swiss Simon Ehammer, who was in the lead, had previously made a false start and was warned.
Lonely race over the hurdles
The German Athletics Association then lodged a protest against the decision. With success – Abele was allowed to compete in the hurdle race. At around 11.30 a.m. he ran over the hurdles all alone to the cheers of the Munich crowd.
“It was emotionally complete destruction. I only did the second discus from the support, because then mentally I was already back at the hurdles.”he explained on the sports show microphone.