Germany’s flagship athlete Niklas Kaul won the decathlon at the Ratingen meeting and broke the Olympic norm for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Carolin Schäfer won the heptathlon.
The 25-year-old European champion Kaul (Mainz) won on Sunday (06/18/2023) with 8,484 points. After he had messed up in his strongest discipline, the javelin throw, doubts arose as to whether the norm was being met.
With 67.44 meters he stayed more than eleven meters behind his throwing ability in the ninth discipline. “A total catastrophe,” scolded Kaul. With a furious 1500-meter run at the end in 4:14.19 minutes, he finally got the ticket to Paris. The norm was 8460 points.
Two months before the World Championships in Budapest, his German challenger Leo Neugebauer will have carefully observed this from far away America. Ten days earlier he had conquered the top of the world rankings at the college championships with 8836 points. Kaul is now looking forward to a “hot duel” at the World Cup, for which he has already qualified.
Schäfer WINS in the heptathlon before Weißenberg
There was a German double success in the heptathlon. Former world championship runner-up Carolin Schäfer of Eintracht Frankfurt defended the lead in the overall heptathlon standings that she held after the first four disciplines on Sunday. Second went to Sophie Weißenberg (Bayer Leverkusen), who temporarily replaced Schäfer at the top after the first competition on Sunday.
Weißenberg reached 6.31 meters in the long jump – the second best value of the competition – while Schäfer posted 5.83 meters. But in the javelin throw, Schäfer took the lead back as third with 50.23 meters. Last year’s winner from Ratingen Weißenberg only managed 45.04 meters, but was only 21 points behind in the overall standings.
Third place in the 800 meter race secures overall victory
But in the last competition, Schäfer managed a good performance in the 800 meter run and crossed the finish line in third place. In 2:14.94 minutes, she came within a second of her best time.
The 31-year-old came up with a total of 6,369 points and made her third overall victory in Ratingen after 2017 and 2018 perfect. With a time of 2:22.24 minutes, Weißenberg, who was limited by an injury to her right foot, still secured second place in the overall ranking.
Both missed the World Cup norm of 6480 points, but should have a place in the World Cup due to their good world rankings. In order to be allowed to compete in the Paris Games, however, they still have to exceed this benchmark.
